Inheritance: The Mantel's Challenge
by Reaper VF6
Summary: It has been 40 years since the Great War ended the UNSC has faced and defeated numerous threats. They are the inheritors of the Mantel and the Forerunners have challenged them to claim. Set in Mass Effect 1, it shows the UNSC reconciling with the Systems Alliance, the Citadel Council, and the Reapers as the UNSC and its Allies, the Imperium try to claim and uphold the Mantel.
1. Journey's Begining

**Inheritance: The Mantel's Challenge**

**Chapter 1**

**Year: 2570-2574**

**Location: Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy**

**Post Great War**

**Year: 2570:** The UNSC recovered the Janus Key. During the operation Jul'Mdama escaped and Dr. Halsey was eliminated by ONI covert action team Kilo 5 under the direct orders of Adm. Serin Osman.

**Year: 2571: **Humanity is starting to reclaim several of the Inner Colonies from their glassed state. Reach is prioritized. Resources are diverted to rapidly rebuild the UNSC Fleet. New ships are being developed including a type new class of super carriers.

**Year 2572:** ONI continues to aid and degrade the Sangheili Imperium, the Storm of the Didact, and Covenant Remnant to ensure no alien power is able to threaten Earth. Despite ONIs meddling the Sangheili in an act of goodwill aid the UNSC in rebuilding Reach. The UNSC is focusing on first rebuilding its fleet.

**Year 2573:** All dissent and rebellion on Sanghelios is put down by the Arbiter Thel Vadam and Rtas Vadum. They along with the remaining might of the loyal Sangheili forge the Imperium. The Imperium is the collection of the former Covenant Separatists into a single entity.

**Year 2574:** The Janus Key is unlocked and it shows a single location instead of every Forerunner installation. ONI sends Blue team and a single Imperium representative in their newest class of prowler to uncover the mystery of the Janus Key.

**Year 2574**

**Location: Bridge of the stealth frigate FFGs-658 Ghost**

**In Slipspace: Heading toward unknown Forerunner Location**

"How much longer Taylor?" asks Capt. Drew Tornabene from his position on the bridge, he is standing between the holotable and command chair. The holopad next to the table flickers to life as young athletically built woman dressed as a Greek hoplite coalesces. She begins "ETA five hours to the system edge captain. We can go faster if you would like but the arrival would be messy. Do you wish for me to begin defrosting the crew?" "Yes begin cryo revival on the crew, Blue Team first," as Capt. Tornabene walks to the command chair. "Also have the Master Chief and the Imperium representative meet me on the bridge when they are both able to." He sits and stares at the swirling energy of slipspace wondering what his crew will find or if his command will survive whatever they find.

In the depths of the frigate, the cryo bays are a hive of activity. In a special reserved cryo bay four pods line one of the walls while the others are filled with diagnostic stations, repair arms, and shield chargers. Each pod is being monitored by two cryo technicians, who have stood before the pods in unending vigil over the past few hours. Taylor's voice sounds through the room's speakers, "Time to _unseal the hushed caskets."_ With the code transmitted, the four pods open with a loud hiss as large figures step from the cold embrace into a well-lit fog. Before the awed naval personal stands four of the remaining Spartan IIs clad in Mjolnir VII combat armor. As the Spartans shake off the cryo effects the surrounding techs begin the process of bringing the armor on line. At four individual stations: health monitors are engaged, gel layers pressurized, any software upgrades are installed, and the shields are given their initial charge. The final and most hated test is administered, much to the dismay of Linda-058, the sight adjustment test. As the preparation nears completion Taylor once again uses the room's IMC speakers, "Master Chief you are wanted on the bridge as soon as possible. The captain wants to speak with you. That is all." With a click the room falls silent once more.

Over the private team COM the Master Chief says to his team, "All right team we don't know what the Janus Key has given us so I want us to prepare for the worst case scenario. Get our standard deployment load but go heavier on ammo amount. I also want everyone carrying a heavy weapon, a hardlight weapon, and extra grenades. We could encounter anything from Storm or Remnant to Flood and Promethean grade hostiles." As he finishes his orders three status lights blink green as the Spartans head toward their personal armory. The Chief pauses to grab a Battle rifle, pistol, and a few grenades before leaving the bay heading for the main elevator.

Standing before the sealed bulkhead the Chief's mind is not focused on the mission, he is reliving the loss of Cortana over Earth. True, he and Cortana were created to protect Earth and all her colonies, soldiers whose duty is to fight and die for the continuation of humanity. After seeing so much death over the course of his life; the Spartan Project, the Insurrection, and the Great War, John is numb to death. He has seen billions die including most of his family and yet only Cortana's death has truly affected him. He was entrusted with her safety; they survived two Halos, the Flood, and the flight from Halo, the battle for Earth, High Charity, and Requiem. John always kept her safe, always kept his promises. His thoughts are broken when the elevator doors open with a hiss of air and screech of brakes.

As the Chief steps into the elevator he realizes he is not alone. Standing in the back corner is the representative from the Imperium. A single elite clad in slivery white armor with a plasma rifle strapped to his back and energy swords to each hip. The elite's most striking feature as the Chief dose his automatic threat assessment is the look of wisdom and power in his eyes that and the fact that half of his mandibles are missing. "Welcome Demon," says Fleetmaster Rtas Vadum in a respectful growl. The doors shut and the elevator slowly ascends. "What do you think the Forerunners have in store for you, reclaimers?" Rtas ask in his deep voice. He continues," I hope for humanities sake that it gives you something to up hold the mantle because the Storm and Loyalist still call for and strive to eradicate your kind." The Chief shifts his weight slightly and turns on his external speakers, "I have no intelligence about this Forerunner location. I just hope we find something humanity can use and not a worthless installation overrun by Flood. Hopefully no lives are wasted on this mission." After the Chief is done speaking, they ride in silence for the next few minutes until the elevator slows and the door opens with the hiss of hydraulics.

The two warriors step unto the bridge and are immediately in the way. As freshly thawed crewmen rush to various stations scattered around the edge. They are bringing systems online, running diagnostics, and one guy the Chief sees is playing Tetris. The captain in his raised area notion for the pair to approach before he goes back to staring at the main information screen. As they step in front of Capt. Tornabene, the Master Chief shouts, "Sir reporting as ordered sir." As he bring his hand up in a stiff salute. Rtas bows his head slightly and says, "I am honored to be on the bridge Shipmaster." Capt. Tornabene turns and looks at the two assembled before him. Why, he thinks, did Adm. Hood send an elite on this mission? They tried to eradicate use in a thirty year long war. Besides this mission concerns humanity not a bunch of spilt lipped xenos.

Pushing those thoughts aside like the professional he his Capt. Tornabene begins, "At ease gentlemen. The Janus Key that ONI recovered was supposed to reveal the location and condition of every piece of Forerunner technology." "However, he continues as he makes his way to the central holotable, "it only gave this one location and no data on it. We are going to drop out of slipspace on the systems edge and proceed in quick and quiet. Blue Team and Rtas's Phantoms will be the tip of the spear. You will go in with stealth transports and secure us an LZ for follow on forces. Dismissed."

"3…2…1, exiting slipspace now," intones Taylor over the bridge speakers. "On screen," orders Capt. Tornabene. The space boils and churns as the Ghost makes its way into real space. "Engage full stealth systems, begin passive scans online, take us in system at half power, arm all weapons; ballista missiles, bring both plasma torpedo launchers to 50 percent charge, MAC gun to 75 percent charge. Tell the Blue Team and the Phantoms they have one hour before they drop," orders Capt. Tornabene as soon as the slipspace portal closes. As he watches his commands being followed with speed and professionalism he moves toward the holotable, "Number two you have the bridge, Taylor project system data onto the table." Choruses of yes sirs rattle off behind him. Looking at the screen he sees a standard system with gas giants farther out and several garden worlds in an inner orbits separated by a large asteroid belt. It looks like Sol, thinks the Captain. Taylor then projects hundreds of sentential signatures that are patrolling the system. Several signatures match the key ship but are much smaller, "Sir," Taylor begins, "I believe there are active Forerunner warships in system and are headed toward us." On the table it shows four ships, each over a kilometer long, break from the main group and head right toward the Ghost.

"Taylor," Captain Tornabene says quietly as he walks back to the command chair, "Bring the ship to Combat Alert Alpha, charge all weapons to full, prepare the marines to repel boarders, send a data burst to HIGHCOM alerting them to the system, initiate Cole Protocol." With his orders finished Taylor alerts the crew, bulkheads are shut, power shunted the weapons and shields, marine and ODST fire teams rush to get weapons and move to defensible points throughout the ship. The Elites and Spartans move to protect critical points and then the ship loses power. An orange beam sweeps through the ship accompanying by a high pitched shriek. "Taylor," growls the Captain as the ship shakes violently, "What just happened?

"Captain," as the lights flicker back on Taylor says, "We have just been actively scanned by a high intensity beam. All electrical systems are rebooting currently. Only life support is unaffected. Records indicate that both the Forward Unto Dawn and the Infinity were scanned like this prior to the First Battle of Requiem. We have incoming power signatures." "On screen," shouts the Captain as he activates the IMC. "All hands this is the Captain. We have just been scanned by sententials. Those who have served on Requiem probably recognize the beam. All combat teams prepare to repel boarders expect Promethean Knights and other Promethean grade hostiles. That is all." As the Ghost drifts helplessly through space several sententials grapple the frigate and begin to move into atmosphere of one of the garden worlds. The bridge crew gets tenser as they are getting closer to ground. As the ship stops motes of light collect around Blue Team, Fleetmaster Rtas Vadum, and Capt. Tornabene. In a flash they are teleported out of the ship and into a city. As the group's vision clears they get their first glimpse of a Forerunner city. Immense Buildings made of sliver white metal float meters off the ground. Their features shifting as the group moves through this urban jungle heading toward a center plaza. "Movement pattern Delta Spartans," commands The Chief as he readies his battle rifle, "Priority is to keep the Captain alive and find a way to get off this planet." Green status blink green as the Spartans spread out and begin scanning for any threats. Rtas grasping his plasma rifle in one hand and plasma sword in other looks up, upon seeing thousands if not millions of sententials, "We cannot survive long against this flock of guardians if they deem us unworthy." The group continues to move silently through the city like shadows they glide from cover to cover. They continue with little sense of direction until the Master Chief and Rtas hear a familiar voice.

"Greetings-analyzing-Welcome reclaimers. I am Monitor-03 Prometheus and I welcome you to this world. It was once the main Fortress World of the Forerunner Empire to wage war with the Flood. Come, Come... error non-reclaimer present, Species indexed as 638A, sangheili, is not permitted to enter the Journey's Commencement." With that revelation the groups is shocked, this easily rivals the discovery of the Halo rings. Struggling to speak Capt. Tornabene swallowing his hatred of the elites asks, "Monitor, Is there any way that the Fleetmaster be allowed to join us?" The monitor floats around the group and hums as he considers the request. "Yes," he replies, "Protocol can be amended since a reclaimer has requested a non-reclaimer. Current example of Species 638A is now granted temporary reclaimer status. "Now," his cheery voice takes an ominous tone, "prepare for the first trial." Motes of light once again collect around the fire team as they are transported to another location.

A single archway shrouded in shadow is what greets the fire team, that and a musky smell and wet splattery sound pervades the darkness. Prometheus says, "Follow the path for the journey begins at the end. Beware the mantle requires its wielders to be strong in its defense." With these words a single corridor lights up beyond the arch. The fire team moves through slowly the musky smell getting worse. Rtas and the Spartans grow uneasy as the smell triggers old memories. Those fears are conformed as the team reaches a giant door. A roar reverberates through the blackness, motion trackers beep as the screen fills with red dots. Flood Combat Forms leapt into the light. Without a word the Master Chief guns the closest one down with a short burst to its chest. As it falls more charged the Spartans. "The parasite, here?" roars Rtas as he slices a combat form in half, "They must not defile this holy place with their filth." With that he charges into the tide. His twin plasma swords flashing in the darkness, reaping a large number of Flood. Seeing that he will be surrounded he fights his out of the horde and back to the Spartan's firing line. The Spartan formed an evenly space line and as one they opened fire with the Forerunner weapons they brought. Kelly and Fred open fire with a pair of Suppressors and the leading ranks of Flood were cut to pieces as the lethal hardlight rounds cut and vaporized parts of their bodies. Linda's Binary Rifle is scything through several forms in an orange beam and a smell of ozone. The Master Chief lets loose with the scattershot, creating a hail of lethal bouncing light. Several times the Flood rushed the outnumbered reclaimers and several times they were cut to pieces by the precision shooting of the Spartans and the swipes of Rtas sword. All of sudden the tide stopped and Prometheus returned, "Excellent, Oh very good reclaimers, I am impressed you withstood the Flood only having class two combat skins. The way is now open to reach what I have guarded for the past thousands years."

The portal opened and a light bridge activated. Prometheus led the group past a series of pillars. The tops rotated off and revealing several Promethean Knights. As the Spartans take aim, Prometheus stops them. These knights, the Chief notices are different, they glow blue instead of orange and they bow as a slipspace portal forms at the end of hall before an abyss. "These knights," Prometheus explains, "Are true ancilla made by the Iso-Didact to protect the Librarian. They are not like the Ur-Didact's complied humans. These will protect all reclaimers not kill them. Now proceed through the portal I will join later." The portal leads to a circular room bathed in white blue light. The inner rings glow brighter the visors of the Spartans darken to try and compensate but to no avail.

The light flares and the fire team is rendered unconscious. As they float in the sky above the planet a platform gathers beneath them. In front of them a women appears. She has long hair and is wearing a magnificent gown. She is made of pure blue light. "Hello reclaimers, Species 638A, and nice to see you again John," begins the Librarian, "There is much to say and not much time. I am glad that the Didact was stopped, he was supposed to guide humanity in the ways of the Mantle. I am now forced to try another means of testing and guiding humanity. To truly take the Mantle you must prove yourselves. This test if passed will solidify humanity as masters of this galaxy and others in time. If failed trillions will die along with the Mantle. As you progress more of our legacy will be revealed and you will gain more control and knowledge of our technology. Once we are finished here this fragment will be destroyed, until another is found my role in this halted. Prometheus can only aid you so much but there are two others on this planet who are entrusted to be humanities guide. Goodbye reclaimers, I hope you prove the Didact wrong about my decision to save your species." Her form fades as the fire team regains consciousness. Prometheus is floating around room and is humming to himself. Noticing the movement below he turns, "You have heard the words of the Librarian and now you must decide the fate of this galaxy. Choose quickly for there is much to do reclaimers."

The Spartans shift slowly seeking out any potential threat of an ambush, Rtas is in a state of semi-shock for he just meet one of his gods. He drops to his knees and recites ancient pray after pray. Capt. Tornabene is torn between taking this offer immediately and waiting for someone higher up to decide. He weighs the arguments in his head but eventually decided in favor of humanity and not his career. He stiffens to attention, his back straight, arms tight by his sides, hands clasped behind his hips. "On behalf of the UNSC and humanity," he begins in a weak voice. Collecting his nerve he grows stronger in conviction, "I accept the test of the Mantle of Responsibility for the Forerunners gave us this legacy and we must do our utmost to safeguard the galaxy."

"Oh very good," replies Prometheus as he bobs in the air. Continuing the monitor floats over to the bowed Sangheili, "Species 638A your presences has also helped the reclaimers pass another test. One of the major failures prior to the Coming of the Flood was that Forerunners failed during a time of peace was with the creation of allies and equals. Thus alone the Forerunners died alone. It is within my power as a Representative of the Forerunner Empire to elevate a species. I cannot elevate them to a total reclaimer but a compromise will do nicely in this case. Your kind and those who follow the Sangheili are now lesser reclaimers. You shall be the Sword of Reclamation and the Shield of Humanity for the galaxy is large, dark, and full of terrors yet to emerge."

Rtas still on his knees says in a deep revenant voice, "I bow to the will of the gods. My kind will forever bear the stain of shame that was the Great War. All of the innocent and needless lives lost rest at our feet. The Great Journey of the Prophets was a lie. It lead to the desecration of so much, our gods betrayed, their teachings corrupted, the Mantle defiled, but no longer. We accept the responsibility to stand with humanity not as servants but as equals. The Age of Atonement has begun." Turning to the humans he continues his voice louder with the clarity of purpose. Rising from his knees he states, "On the blood of my kin I pledge my sword. So my children can bask in the honor regained and glory won across the stars. The Journey of Atonement starts with this first step."

The monitor breaks the silence caused by Rtas proclamation, "To begin please proceed down the hall and enter the first slipspace portal that opens." With the directions given Prometheus floats away. Following the instructions the fire team moves in a standard search and destroy pattern, bounding from overwatch positions to cover points they reach a lit section in a few minutes. The walls are covered in murals showing the history of the Forerunners. Most mean nothing to the team. Eventually they reach etchings that depict the Forerunner-Flood War. Small groups of warriors standing before a tidal wave of flood forms; unlimited numbers of combat and infection forms rush to consume and kill billions. Space battles were the stars themselves were used as weapons. Worlds and systems shattered to stem the unstoppable tide. Trillions abandoned to the Flood. The Liberian standing in the Ark, the Iso-Didact in the control room of Halo Installation 04. The Final mural shows two monitors locked in one-on-one combat. A portal forms as the fire team approaches the end of the hall.


	2. First trial of Inheritance

12

**Chapter 2**

**Year 2574**

**Location: Holder of the Guide**

**Forerunner Fortress World**

"Ready up Spartans," says Capt. Tornabene as his grip tenses on his SMG. Green lights wink in his HUD. The Spartans take point and step through the portal. After a sense of vertigo the team is deposited in another room. As they move around a single light bridge activates. The room is suspended by four columns of light over an abyss. With no other way the team moves over to the bridge and begin to cross it. After a few minutes of walking another platform assembles itself as the bridge connects to it. The platform is circle but a large portion of its middle is open to the void. Standing in the ring, beams of blue shoot down into the void and slowly draws a constantly revolving golden sphere from the blackness. It is a cryptum. The sphere rest in the center of the ring. A thin bridge connects the cryptum to the rest of the platform and two control panels wink into existence.

Both the Master Chief and Rtas feel drawn to each of the panels. Rtas steps up to the panel and presses his hand to it. The cryptum revolves with great speed constantly shifting and altering its layers. The various layers separated slightly as it slowly builds up a golden energy charge. The Chief hesitates to open the cryptum, since it's a prison. Flashbacks of the war caused by the Prophets in the name of the Forerunners; Voi, Cortana's fragment after it was tortured by the Gavemind, and the glassing of Africa. The fight on High Charity to save Cortana, the killing of the high prophets, the destruction of the Ark. The fighting on Requiem, the unleashing of the Ur-Didact, the composing of New Phoenix, and the loss of Cortana. Can he release whatever potential evil lies within its depths? Will this cause more death and destruction, more wasted lives? Gripped with indecision, an old speech floats to the top of his mind. "_You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained... and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies..._" said Doc. Halsey when they were inducted into the Spartan Program. As the words of the speech fade back into memory, he hears faintly, "_Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep." _A firm resolves replaces the indecision _"_I am a Spartan," the Chief thinks, "Nothing can defeat me I have defied wanna-be gods and the physical manifestation of pure evil, a monument to sin." Stepping forward to the panel he clicks his comm, "Be ready, the last time I did this the Didact emerged." His HUD blinks green has his brothers and sisters ready their hardlight weapons. He looks at the floating computer, one button seems to jump out at him. He places his hand there and pushes against the solid air. The cryptum starts to revolve even faster. Its layers blur as they shift position and change size. The golden energy flares and burst outward accompanied by a high pitched whine. Shields flare and snap as shrill warnings blare in the helmets of the Spartans. Rtas rolls back and ignites his plasma swords and settles into a combat crouch. Rifles are pulled tight against the shoulders of the humans as fingers hover directly over triggers. Then it all stops as the cryptum opens. It reveals a small holopad and another monitor encased in a pillar of light. The monitor looks similar to Prometheus but it has different design an older design.

A micro-portal opens and Prometheus emerges, "While I am glad you took up the challenge for the Mantle," he says in a serious tone, "I hate to have to awaken him. The failure of the Ur-Didact to guide humanity means that the Liberian needs another to guide you reclaimers because I am not permitted to leave the planet. This is Monitor 05-032 Mendicant Bias. My brother is the most hated ancilla of the Forerunners and the greatest ancilla ever created by the Forerunners." According to the data terminals on the Ark and Halo installations Mendicant Bias was a Contender grade AI. It was charged with defeating the Flood and the interrogation of a Gravemind. It was corrupted by the Gravemind to turn on its makers. The Flood armies under its command ravaged world after world and brought the Forerunners to their knees. He was defeated by his brother Offensive bias after the Halo array render his Flood ships useless. Broken into fragments that were scattered through the remains of Forerunner space. The majority sent back here where he was held in stasis made to constantly reflect on his past evils with the burning desire to repent. He is the first ancilla to reach metastability, becoming a sentient being because he survived rampancy. His quest of atonement that helped him reach metastability led him to aid the Master Chief on the Ark.

"He is not the only ancilla that will be passed on to you reclaimers." Says Prometheus, "The Forerunners are not the only species that have created ancilla. Though primitive, yours reclaimers, can be surprising." With that the holopad activates and naked female human, roughly in her early twenties, with purplish/bluish skin, shoulder length purplish/bluish hair cut shorter at the back, and blue symbols scrolling down her body appears. "Did you miss me Chief?" asks Cortana. The Chief was shocked, his greatest hope and desire, to find Cortana just appeared before him. Stepping closer to the platform he slowly reaches behind his head and pulls out a data chip. "Sleep well?" the Chief asks. Cortana flashed pink as she replies with a smile, "Yes no thanks to your driving." Completing the age old greeting. Just as the Chief was about to insert her chip, Cortana screams and flashes orange as the voice of the Didact roars, "Reclaimers? No upstarts, who deserve only death and composing."

Several dozen knights spawn on the ring, still glowing blue. The Spartans spread out as the Prometheans slowly change, the blue warping to orange. The Didact calls out again, "My knights rid the galaxy of these upstarts and threats to the Mantle." The orange flares in the knights as they turn toward the reclaimers weapons being brought to the ready. Cortana collapses to the floor of the holopad, her skin slowly turning back to its normal cyan color. Spartan time kicks in for the Blue Team. In quick succession Linda fires two rounds from her binary rifle vaporizing two knights before switching to her light rifle. Kelly fires a railgun round into a Knight Commander's chest cracking him in half. Fred fires a 40mm grenade into several charging Knights, the EMP effect leaves them vulnerable to the hailstorm of fire from his Suppressor. All this happened before the Chief pulled Cortana from the terminal. As soon as the transfer was complete a hardlight round slagged the holopad. Inserting Cortana into his armor, relishing the stab of mercury and icy pain the Chief turns his Suppressor onto the Knight horde thinning their shields for his teammates to kill.

Rtas pushes Capt. Tornabene out of the way as he blocks a sword blow from a charging Knight. Turning to face his opponent he sweeps forward and brushes past the Knight's guard and cuts it in half both vertical and horizontally. Stepping into the next charging foe he cuts his foes arm and leg causing the Knight to fall. As he moves to kill the next one Rtas is struck from behind, a scattershot blast just missing him. Recovering he sees Capt. Tornabene getting up and shredding the disabled Knight with his SMG. Nodding in thanks Rtas continues his rampage.

Both sides are trading hardlight rounds and grenades as Rtas slaughters his way through a dozen Knights, Tornabene finishing off any one wounded by the Fleetmaster. Prometheus struggles with the virus, shifting in and out of his combat mode. His eye beam cutting through the air at random times and directions. Cutting down rogue Knights and forcing the Spartans to move or get cut in half. "Chief, That Knight Commander in the middle of the phalanx is the primary signal for the virus," says Cortana inside the Chiefs head. The Chief runs and jumps over the first line of Prometheans and lands in front of the Commander. Rolling low right after he lands, the sword slash whistles over his head. Crouching he thrusts his scattershot under the Commander's chin and fires. The gun shudders, a flash of red light is followed by an orange glow as the Knight dissolves from the hardlight rounds.

With the control unit gone the rest of the Prometheans grow still. Guns cool and grow silent as the constructs color slowly goes from orange to blue. With a bow the remaining knights create a portal and disappear. Prometheus after deleting the virus attempting to control him is back to his normal self, "Pardon me reclaimers but I must ensure the safety of this planet. I must purge and reset the security systems. Please do not activate anything till I return." He floats up into the black ceiling leaving the four Spartans, the UNSC captain, the AI, and Sangheili alone in front of the cryptum. "Dam," says Capt. Tornabene, "I still can't get a signal out the Ghost. I don't even know if they still are on the planet or even alive." He shakes his head in a defeated manner, "One moment Captain," says Cortana her voice emanating from the Chiefs speakers, "Accessing and done, the ship is still being held at the space port you were placed at. Sententials and other ancilla are guarding the ship. The crew appears to be sealed on board, probably for their safety."

The team continues to wait in silence for the return of the monitor. The Chief has spent the time in conversation with Cortana. Filling her in on what has happened since the Didact was defeated. He beyond grateful that he found her alive and well. Cortana detecting the emotions in his voice and the activity of brain, reciprocates these feelings. She tells him how she got to the planet and how being confined in the cryptum was for her safety as she continued to evolve past rampancy. Capt. Tornabene walks over to Rtas who is mediating. Coughing softly to get the Sangheili's attention the Fleetmaster turns to the human. "I was opposed to having any one from the Imperium on this mission in the first place," begins the UNSC officer, "Lord Hood had to order me to shut up and behave like a professional officer of the UNSC. Ever since Harvest I have fought your kind. I was on the frontlines since the Harvest campaign with Adm. Cole. I saw my home world of Reach glassed. I hated to look at you," swallowing he continues, "However since you and your people risked genocide from your leaders and followers to aid us once the truth came out. Since you helped save Earth from both the Covenant and the Flood and saved hundreds of humans on the Ark and my life about an hour ago. I can try to forgive what your people have done." His speech done Capt. Tornabene offers his hand to Rtas. Rtas cocks his head as he regards this human in a new light. "He saved my life at the risk of his own," thinks Rtas as he considers his reply. "We have done much evil born of falseness, some would say that we are unworthy of forgiveness. I thank you human for even considering to forgive, this small amount of atonement may grow into something that will aid both are people." He shakes the offered hand and adds, "Your actions against the rogue constructs have proven your valor and honor. Should you ever need aid regardless of the situation all you need to do is call upon me or my kin. We will come to you if you call."

Prometheus returns and says, "It is now safe to activate my brother. Only I can do so on your orders reclaimers." Tornabene nods and the monitor turns to Mendicant and fires a beam at the prism of light. It glows for several seconds and then shatters like glass the shards dissolving as they fly through the air. The Liberian's voice is heard in the distance, "The Mantle must be earned. Mendicant will guide you but it is up to humanity to prove itself worthy. Don't make me regret my choice and prove the Didact right." Slowly lights inside the monitor flicker on. Like a person waking up after a coma Mendicant slowly gains conciseness. His systems fully initialize and he floats a few meters forward. Every weapon is brought to bear on the unknown monitor. Its first words said in a sad timeless voice, "_I will reject my bias and make amends... My makers are my masters. I will bring them safely to the Ark_" Upon seeing Prometheus floating above the reclaimers, he asks, "Have you come to finish what Offensive started and permanently erase me brother?" "No," replies Prometheus, "The Liberian and I are offering you a chance to attain what you desire, penance. You will aid the reclaimers on the challenge to attain the Mantle passed down by our makers. I cannot leave and the Liberian is scattered into fragments. Should you fall again, I promise I will finish you in entirety. Nothing will remain, not a single fragment."

"I will aid the reclaimers have no worry brother. I will teach them of the Mantle. Their technology however is a Tier 3. Much will have to be done. Though not all at once, as the Librarian wanted for each species to evolve on its own. I will however give several things as the way to start your test. Hardlight cannons that will be made here will be given to your ships, matter convertors and constructors to rebuild the damage done in our name, better shields and armor to protect your warriors, faster engines and slipspace drives to expand in the name of the Mantle, and finally nanites to increase everything in your biology." With that they are teleported along with Mendicant back to the Ghost. Tornabene gives orders to radio Earth. Hood needs to be informed as does the Arbiter and forces sent to secure this place and study it.

Within weeks dozens of warships patrol the system. The UNSC sent their best ships to be refitted. Adm. Lasky is in command of the fleet onboard the Infinity. Capt. Tornabene is given command of a Marathon cruiser for his efforts in discovering the planet. The work on and above the planet goes slowly but steadily as the state Orion Arm deteriorates. The Prophets have reformed the Covenant without the sangheili, and a portion of the unggoy, and lekgolo, thus the Imperium and the UNSC faces an old foe reborn. The Remnant and the Storm have been raiding the boarders of both parties space killing and glassing what they could. These raids have been growing more frequent as they are seeming to grow stronger with each passing month. Capt. Tornabene is eventually reassigned to the broader regions to fight xenos and a renewed insurrection.

**Year 2574**

**Location: Sigma Octanus IV System**

**A Combined UNSC and Spear of the Imperium Patrol**

Several months have passed and currently Tornabene is patrolling the system of Sigma Octanus IV, a site of a major UNSC win during the Great War. His ship is the Avery Johnson, a brand new Marathon class heavy cruiser has been outfitted with the latest in human, sangheili, and forerunner technology. He is not alone, his ship is accompanied a Thantos MKII class destroyer and two Charon MKII and a single Paris MKII class frigates as well as a Sangheili CCS class battlecruiser. Just about to leave the sector when a slipspace monitoring post sent a flash report. _Inbound slipspace disturbance. Size and profile matching has lead us to conclude that Sigma Octanus IV is about to come under attack by a pair of DDS class carriers and a CCS class battlecruiser. End Report. _Frowning at the report Capt. Tornabene has Taylor bring his ship as well as the ships of his task group up to combat alert alpha. Moving in close to the Unflinching Retribution, he frees his small ships to act as a wolf pack against targets of opportunity. The waiting begins.

For half an hour the ships were at battle stations waiting for the enemy. Close to the planet a region of space tears open, amid the churning of reality and the lighting storm three ships glide into the starlight background. Two 1.5 km long DDS class carriers escorted by a single 1.8 km long CCS class cruiser angle toward the UNSC and Imperium task group. Both ships unleash their single ships, hundreds of seraphs, broadswords, katanas, and shortswords fill the rapidly closing gulf between the two groups of ships. One frigate, the Believe, heads with the fighters to blunt the enemy strafing runs. The rest of the small ships target one of the carriers, mac guns charging at a rapid rate as the hardlight cannons swivel in their turrets.

Tornabene on the Johnson executes a pinpoint jump behind the other carrier firing his twin macs at close range. The shields flare and shatter as twin firebolts lance into the hull causing the ship to spin rapidly. Following the mac rounds are hundreds of ballistae missiles, their stealth coatings make interception difficult and before they impact, the missile projects a plasma field around the nose to aid penetration, punching deep into the bowels of the carrier causing secondary explosions to rock the ship. In reply the Johnson is hit with a four plasma torpedoes in rapid succession. Its newly installed shields flare brightly and barely hold. The thermal bled through however slags several of the emitters, weaking the protective field as a hailstorm of pulse lasers burst on the shield dropping the protective field. As the shielding on the two ships attempt to recharge. The close quarter's barrage of plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers crisscrosses the void with blue hardlight beams, salvoes of ballistae, and swarm energy missiles slowly grind their way through the both combatant's armor belt. Both ship cease firing as energy levels are slowly replenished and shielding is barely reestablished. The carrier, on its last breath of life, unleashes its energy projector the sliver white beam cutting through the weaken shields of the Johnson with ease. It fires six torpedoes, half from the labored side and the other half arc around the dying ship. Pulse lasers cut through weaken and battered sections of the armor belt. On the bridge Tornabene sees the lethal bolts heading straight for the holes in his ships last line of defense. _"Well this is it. I die doing my duty to Earth and the UNSC,"_ he thinks.

As the bolts draw closer another slipspace portal opens and the Unflinching Retribution emerges. The pinpoint jump has used ups its energy reserves as it takes the most of the plasma torpedoes meant to kill the Johnson on its unshielded hull. A three bolts are diffused by the guidance jamming signal and do minor damage to its outer hull as they burst apart. Two slam into the sangheili cruiser melting through several layers of the outer decks on its left side. One torpedo hits the Johnson and burns clean through a vehicle bay. Casualties are low and the space was depressurized as per standing orders, but the cruiser can't take another hit like that its structural integrity is now close to failing. The Unflinching Retribution recharges its shields and weapons just in time to shrug off a salvo of pulse lasers and replies with a salvo of four plasma torpedoes from its labored side to finish off the crippled heretic. As the plasma eats through the hull of the carrier its reactors go critical, blowing up in a multi-megaton blast. If it wasn't for the Unflinching Retribution shielding the Johnson, the human cruiser would have been obliterated by the shock and energy wave.

A shaken Tornabene watches as the other carrier kills one of the Charon frigates, as it along with the destroyer and the Paris class frigate open fire, four mac rounds rush through space as hundreds of missiles follow. Damaging the carrier when its shields were broken by the mac rounds just before the ballistae missiles hit. The ship is cored by a follow up salvo swarm missiles fired by the crippled Johnson, made of hardlight the swarm missiles turn into thousands of lethal shards upon penetration. The destroyer is heavily damage when a large number of fighters break away from the main dogfight and strafe and bomb the ship in a wave of fury. The frigate, Darkest Hour, tries to drive off the fighters with a massive archer salvo but it is cut in half as the CCS battlecruiser fires its twin energy projectors.

Shipmistress Rha' Vadum curses, "By the gods have they no honor? Bring our energy projector online and burn that heretic from the heavens." Her crew rushes to obey. A high-pitched whine fills the bridge as the light dims, outside a point on the dorsal surface glows greater than a star and fires. The needle thin beam of silvery white energy cuts through the void of space, the Remnant cruiser triggers its maneuvering thrusters in a hard burn and only takes a glancing blow. Its shields however have been stripped by the powerful energy beam and its sensors have yet to come back online. Seeing an opportunity Taylor directs the surviving heavy bombers and fighters to attack the blind cruiser. As the single ships break through the swirling dogfight, series of explosions ripple through the Unflinching Retribution as the power relays overload. Tornabene has a salvo of archers fired along with a quartet of Shiva nuclear missiles to finish off the CCS battlecruiser and get a measures of revenge for the human and sangheili lives lost.

The katana heavy fighters destroy the cruisers CAP in a barrage of ASGM-10 missiles and bursts of 150mm gauss cannon rounds. They then push forward on full afterburner and strafed obvious pulse laser turrets and unleashed dozens of hammer missiles blasting chunks of armor off the ship. The shortswords fired dozens of mini-archers and caused hundreds of explosions as the missile tear into the weakened ship. Burning but not yet crippled the battlecruiser comes back to life with a vengeance, lancing out with hundreds of pulse laser fire, that kills dozens of the attacking fighters and bombers as well as lunching a small salvo of torpedoes at the remaining UNSC ships. It was to no avail as the hundred strong archer salvo slams into a weaken hull exposing more decks and compartments to the cold vacuum of space. Then the Shiva's hit, the CCS was enveloped in four separate overlapping 100 megaton explosions. Its reactors went critical and was vaporized by the secondary detonations. The plasma torpedoes burst apart as the controlling magnetic field was dissipated.

With the battle over the rest of the week is spent along with a mixed relief fleet repairing the damage inflict and recovering the dead. Once his ship was able to survive slipspace Capt. Tornabene and Shipmistress Rha' Vadum are order back to Reach for a debriefing by ONI. The one good thing about this current conflict is that for most UNSC planets the Cole Protocol no longer applies, meaning the trip back to Reach will be several hours shorter because a direct route can be taken. Moving to the system edge Shipmistress Vadum moves into the escorting position even though her ship is larger and more powerful, it is her way of rendering a battle honor. Capt. Tornabene resolves to meet the Shipmistress while they are on Reach together.

* * *

As requested the format fix on chapter 2. Like I said before I will post the next chapter after the on following it is done. I want to aim for an upload at least once a week if not more. Also any feedback is welcomed provided it is done in a respectful manner. Thanks for reading.


	3. Unintended Destination and Decision

16

**Chapter 3**

**Milky Way**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Arcturus Station**

**Arcturus System**

**2555**

Admiral Hackett is going over reports of the past week. A normal day of paperwork gets interrupted when an aid rushes into the room, "Admiral, Sir we have a high  
priority report from the scouting and exploration craft Odysseus. They have found something, something big and human." Grabbing the holopad from the young lieutenant. Hackett scans the contents as he walks to the command room. His pace picks up as he continues reading. Making a detour he runs to the nearest hangar. "Pilot," He shouts, "I need immediate transport to the Everest." On-board the kodiak, Hackett is sending rapid orders for the Fifth Fleet to be ready for an immediate combat deployment to the Odysseus's location along with the Hawking's Carrier battlegroup. This will deploy around one-third of humanities naval might. Hackett hopes that they will be able to lock down the system before anyone else finds out what the Odysseus found.

After a week of relay travel they arrived. The images on the view screens leave everyone in shock at the size of the vessel they find, 2.5km long and not one speck of element zero detected. As the ships move to patrol the system Hackett takes the Everest and the Fuji in close. On the long flanks of the ship, written in silver contrasting with its gunmetal grey sides is UNSC Spirit of Fire CFV-88. Hackett goes over the sensor readings, confirmed that there are human life signs on-board, he orders the marines to prepare a salvage and recovery operation.

As the marines gear up, inside the supposed derelict the lights turn on as the ship comes to life. Serina actives and begins thawing out the command crew and red team as soon as external sensors confirm the presence of human ships outside. Cutter stands on the ruined bridge of his home watching the unknown fleet patrol the system. "Serina," he begins "Sitrep."

Serina gives him a brief history, "We have been drifting for 24 years. The slipspace portal caused by the shield world destruction has sent us to the other side of the galaxy. Currently there are several hundred unknown warships in system, most are small corvette and frigate sized ships but there are four cruiser sized ships as well. They do not match any recorded profiles or power signatures."

"Hail the lead ship," commands Cutter, "let's hope their friendly."

The communications officer on the Everest is shocked when he hears "Attention to unknown ships this Capt. Cutter of the UNSC. I want to speak with the commanding officer of this battlegroup." This message is being played over all frequencies. The young officer patches it through to Adm. Hackett's station. On the main screen shows an older man roughly the same age as Adm. Hackett dressed in a dull grey uniform with an eagle emblem for his rank and a bird of prey clutching a planet in its talons with the words United Nations Space Command written underneath. The man on the screen repeats his message, "Attention to unknown ships this Capt. Cutter of the UNSC. I want to speak with the commanding officer of this battlegroup."

Hackett hits the transmit button and replies, "Capt. Cutter this is Adm. Steven Hackett of the Human Systems Alliance. I am the ranking overall commander of the Alliance Navy. What is the UNSC?"

Capt. Cutter replies, "Admiral Sir, The UNSC is the primary military branch of the United Earth Government, charged to protect Earth and her Colonies. Now if you are Insurrectionists forces I order you to stand down and prepare to be boarded." Hackett can't believe his ears, these people believe they are the defenders of Earth, that's the Alliances mission and he has never heard of the UNSC or the UEG or the Insurrectionists for that matter.

Shaking his head, "Their seems to be a problem with your story captain, the UNSC and UEG do not exist the System Alliance fills the role you just described, I think we should meet face to face to find out was is going on here," replies Hackett.

Cutter looks at someone off-screen and talks quietly with them for a few minutes before agreeing to the Hackett's idea. "Very well sir I welcome you aboard the Spirit of Fire you may bring a three-man security detail to accompany you. Dock in hangar bay Bravo-1."

Turning Cutter asks, "What do you think Anders, Serina"

Serina answers first, "We have no FTL drive so we don't have a lot of options. If the star readings are correct we are on the opposite side of the Galaxy. If the crew were put in stasis and everything reduced to minimum power we still could not make back to UNSC controlled space. Also we don't know the status of the war, nothing could be left. If we can't go back we still have an oath to fill, to protect humanity. If not ours then these humans are still humanity."

Anders nodding in agreement, "Plus these humans here have reached a similar level of technology to the UNSC and they said they represented Earth. I for one want to know how it's possible.

Cutter looking back out in space considers their arguments, "Have an honor guard ready for the Admiral and let's see what he has to stay before making up our minds."

Hackett picks three of best marines on the ship, all N7 graduates, and heads to the shuttle bay. The rest of the fleet moves off to a respectful distance but ready to intervene. Hackett doubts they could do much as more as that ship turns on, the power levels are higher than the collective sum of the Fifth Fleet. It is the same size as the Destiny Ascension, Hackett hopes he can convince these people to join the Alliance or at the very least aid them. Their technology could put humanity years ahead of the Council altering the power dynamic of the galaxy.

As the shuttle lands he hears a similar series of whistle blows and a computerized voice say, "Admiral Hackett, Chief of Alliance Naval Operations, Arriving."

Stepping into the cavernous bay he sees two dozen black armored soldiers salute him. Looking up he sees Cutter along with a young women of Asian descent and three giants clad in green heavy armor on a raised dais. Behind them are banners showing the UNSC emblem and the ships insignia. Hackett acknowledges the salute and says in his best command voice, "Permission to come aboard captain?"

Cutter saluting and replies, "Permission granted Admiral. Welcome abroad the UNSC CFV-88 Spirit of Fire. May I suggest we conduct this meeting in the wardroom?"

The party moves through a series of bulkheads and elevators to reach the wardroom. Beginning Cutter says, "I believe we should give a summary of our respective histories to establish a common frame-work. May we go first Admiral?" Hackett nods wondering what he is about to witness. "Serina," says Cutter, "Please show the prepared video." The light dim as Serina plays an hour-long video that shows early history up to the 2500s in roughly fifteen minutes the rest of the video was reserved for the Human-Covenant War and the discovery of the Flood.

Hackett after recovering from the shock of the video has several comments and questions, "Captain I don't know how but up until the early 2000s our two people's history are exactly the same. Activating his omi-tool Hackett transmits the System Alliances Codex. Serina displays both sets of data as a simple time line for ease of comparison. Overlaying the two data lines, they match up perfectly until the early 2000s. Everyone in the room is shocked even Serina takes an additional two seconds to reprocess and compare the data.

"It is a genuine match Captain," intones Serina, "There are entries concerning the UN but their history was altered when they discovered the Mass effect technology. It took them far longer to develop workable FTL systems but they were able to colonize their solar system much faster and with greater stability. Their Earth never had the Second American Civil War or World War 3. Its nation-state system is still intact. Also Earth gave the Systems Alliance total freedom in space. Whereas the UEG and UNSC was forged after decades of conflict that destroyed the previous nation-state system and culminated in the Rainforest Wars."

Cutter looks at the data points and then at Hackett, "Anders any idea how this is possible?"

"I would have to go over every scrape of data regarding our two biologic evolutions and compare that to the data Serina managed to get from the shield world. Right not now I don't have enough information sir," replies Anders.

Cutter shakes his head and thinks this ship has a finite supply of power, food, and other supplies. We have found another group of humans that have nearly the same history. The crew has seen and survived so much. I can't condemn them, if it is possible I will consider joining the Alliance, to safeguard Earth and my crew. "Now that you have heard our history Admiral it is your turn. Also since our pasts are nearly the same can you please fill us in about recent events of this galactic arm."

"The First Contact War, begins Adm. Hackett, "Humanity's first contact with an alien race occurred. At that time, it was standard practice to allow survey fleets to activate any dormant mass relays discovered. This however violates Citadel law. Even though we did not have prior knowledge of the Citadel and the galactic government. A turian patrol, one of the major races of the Citadel Council, discovered a human fleet attempting to activate a relay, they attacked. One human vessel survived, retreating to the colony of Shanxi. The turians followed, quickly defeating the local forces. Shanxi was occupied. The turians believed the handful of ships they defeated represented the bulk of human defenses. So they were unprepared when we launched a counteroffensive. The Second Fleet was use to evict them from Shanxi. We lost around seven hundred humans. Small compared to anything I have just seem concerning the Human-Covenant War. The turians in response mobilized for full-scale war, drawing the attention of the rest of the Citadel aligned species. The Council quickly intervened, forcing a truce. Fortunately for us, the First Contact War was ended with a diplomatic solution."

Hackett then transmitted over the rest of the Codex, "This contains a short summary of the general state of Scutum–Centaurus arm**. **It will be easier for you to read this on your own and ask me any addition questions." The senior officers of the Spirit left the wardroom and took several hours to read and process the information that Adm. Hackett gave them. Cutter later returned and raised the potential problem of Serina's existence. After a short debate the two leaders decided to deal with that problem only of it came to light.

With his fears over Serina's life assuage Cutter calls in his senior officers to discuss their future options. The debate and argument were lively to the say the least. After two hours Cutter brought a stop to it. Cutter then gets up and looks each one in the eye questioningly, one by one they nod yes. Hackett waits in confused silence. Cutter taking a deep breath begins, "We have taken oaths to the UNSC, the UEG, and to the people of Earth and her colonies. Seeing as we can't go home and for all intents and purposes another Earth is here and ours might be a ball of glass. The crew and I wish to join the Alliance to stay true to our oaths to protect humanity."

Hackett could not believe his ears, this possibility was a forlorn hope. He extends his hand and says, "Welcome to the Alliance Captain, there is much to do and we can do it back at Arcturus Station." The trip to Arcturus took a few weeks, within the month the Spirit of Fire was in one of the berths being repaired and modified. The deck guns were replaced with heavy mass accelerators, disruptor torpedoes were installed, a mass effect core to added enable FTL and relay travel. Several army bases were empty to partially replenish the vehicle and fighter bays. Infantry weapons were swapped out and kinetic barriers on both the ship and on marine armor were installed. It was going smoothly until a small unknown battlegroup jumped in system and proceeded to open fire killing several cruisers and damaging the three dreadnoughts on station.

Cutter, watching the Chicago explode, orders Serina, "Break from the dock, arm the MAC gun, and fire when you have a target." The reactors dump enormous levels of energy into the series of magnets and capacitors along the length of the ship. The Alliance vessels detecting the power surge thought a mass effect core exploded.

"Firing now," intones Serina as the lights dim and a dull roar reverberates inside the ship. A light, 300 ton, metal slug is hyper accelerated toward the hostiles. Their barriers flashed once before the MAC round vaporized the ship. A few minutes later the bow of the Spirit flashed again and another unknown ship was killed. The rest started to run but was ambushed by the Third fleet and wiped out.

The whole Alliance Parliament just watched a ship with no element zero, a ship which most of them on Arcturus thought was a big waste of money, just annihilate two hostile dreadnaughts at ranges that the Destiny Ascension could not reach with a single shot each. Also from the information Cutter shared, the Spirit did not have a heavy MAC but a lighter version and was not a dedicated warship but a civilian conversation. The Parliament shudders to think what kind of devastation would happen if the UNSC every found way into their region of space and decided they were the enemy.

A few months later the Alliance Parliament also saw what the so-called Spartan super soldiers were capable of. A major slaver base was found near Alliance space in the neutral zone between them and the Batarians. Hackett wanted the base gone and Cutter volunteered the three Spartans of Red Team to deal with. The Alliance HighCom was skeptical that just three soldiers, not even biotic ones, could handle the base. Once inserted by a high altitude jump Red Team gilded through the night sky as unseen predators. It took them roughly an hour to travel the ten kilometers to the slaver bases perimeter. They proceeded to set up several surveillance points and surveyed the base. They found the patterns of the patrols, the blind spots of cameras were pin-pointed and gather mission data was acted upon, this took around five hours. They moved into the base like shadows, left a small present and left like shadows. No bodies, no alarms, and no trace. Leaving the base as quietly as they entered it took the Spartans one hour to gather up their gear and erase all signs of their presence on this desolate moon. It took them another hour to move back to the exfiltration zone and call of pick-up. The mission lasted less than ten hours before Red Team requested extraction.

Back aboard the Everest, Hackett commented that the base was still there. The Spartans just kept staring and then a massive mushroom cloud formed as the HAVOC nuke went off. 30 megatons of destruction destroyed the base and the surrounding area. Luckily this was a uninhabitable world so the Council did not care, much. Humanity got a stern talking to from Tavos for that act. Also the Batarians threaten that this could create a state of war between the Systems Alliance and the Hegemony. S.A. HighCom was amazed even more when Cutter told them that the HAVOC was the standard nuclear mine size and the Spirit carries two fifty megaton nuclear missiles as part of their standard payload.

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Arcturus Station**

**Arcturus System Heading to the Planet of Elysium**

**2565**

"All units this is Adm. Hackett. The Terminus System pirate bands and slaver fleets are attacking our major colonies in the Skyllian Verge. I am ordering the immediate counter attack by the Fifth fleet, Third fleet, and Hawking Carrier group. The Spirit of Fire is going to Elysium with the Fifth Fleet under my direct command. Hackett out." Massive numbers of ships move to the relay. Along the way several Turian Cruisers whose captains want to see some action ask to join the fleet. Hackett seeing a chance to improve relations and show off the Spirit agrees.

On the ground Shepard is fighting for his life. He managed to rally a small force of off duty marines, police officers, and armed militia at key choke points around the cities spaceport. Wave after wave of Batarian slavers charged and died before the barricades. The last wave however has left only ten percent of the defenders alive, "The next wave," Shepard thinks, "They will break us on the next charge." That charge never came. The bulk of the Slavers dismayed and angered over the stubborn defense of the spaceport redeployed their forces at least twenty kilometers away from the city to try to take it on foot. This bought the fleet time to arrive.

In orbit the Spirit of Fire leads the counter-attack, the Turians are shocked to see such a huge and different looking warship bearing Alliance insignia. Its MAC gun barks four times once it clears the relay and the heavy rounds tear through several slaver cruisers and a proxy dreadnaught. Moving in with the rest of the Alliance fleet, they quickly secure the orbit of Elysium. Cutter sends in the ODSTs right on top of the Batarians. Everyone; Alliance, Turian, and Batarian are shocked to see the way that the Orbital Drop Shock Troops deploy. Hackett didn't believe Col. Makarov when he first described his forces capabilities now he is a believer. One hundred ODSTs with the three Spartans of Red team slam feet first into the amassing slavers, wiping them out in a matter of hours. The ODST suffer only twenty KIA with most of them due to drop pod malfunctions and six from the slavers.

Cutter moving the Spirit of Fire into the planet's atmosphere to everyone's disbelief that something so massive can hover and fly in a gravity well like a frigate. Deploys heavy firebases filled with harden UNSC marines directly to the surface. Vulture and Hawk gunships patrol the planets skies pummeling any slaver who stick their head out long enough as Pelican Dropships move marines to clear out slaver controlled areas and rescuing any one unfortunate to be caught in their hellish web. It takes roughly a week for the Spirit of Fire to secure Elysium, while the rest of the Alliance and the Turian ships focus on securing the rest of the Skyllain Verge. During the mopping up phase Commander Shepard, Hero of Elysium, becomes the Devil of Torfan when he wipes out the massive slaver base on the moon along with two-thirds of his squad.

Due to the secretive nature of the UNSC and their sudden appearance in this part of the galaxy, both sets of humanity are not willing to show the Turians and the Council anything other than the size and power of the Spirit of Fire. They hide as much as possible about the UNSC its history, combat doctrine and capabilities, the Spartans super-soldiers, and their use of AIs. They managed to remain an obscure shadow in the glaring eyes of the Citadel Council.

**Milky Way**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**2574**

Serina, monitoring survey drone and ships messages, picks up a UNSC Slipspace deacon on the boarder of Alliance and Batarian Space. The Spirit of Fire and the Einstein carrier group travels to investigate the strange readings. What they discover is somber for the former UNSC personnel but another gift from the cosmos to the Alliance, the battered hulk of the UNSC Everest is found. Though heavily damage from the Battle of Psi Serpentis the superstructure, cryo bays, and reactors are still in working order. Cutter immediately moves to secure the ship. The Alliance vessels move off to a respectful distance. The Spartans go in with the first wave. Moving swiftly life support is a top priority for the marine repair crews, the Spartans however head toward the bridge. Breaking through the warped bulkheads, they go to the command cyro bay, and report back, "Spirit this Red-1, we have secured Odin, repeat Odin is secured. Once power is restored we will begin cryo retrieval.

All of this activity did not go unnoticed. On day three of the recovery operation a Batarian fleet consisting of two dreadnaughts, thirty cruisers, and fifty frigates jumped into the system. "In the name of Hegemony, You are required to leave this is Batarian space and the ship you are trying to salvage belongs to us. Leave now or die," says Admiral Kor Vesh of the Hegemony on the bridge of the Unrivaled Misery.

Cutter bring the ship up to combat alert alpha contacts Kor Vesh, "This is an Alliance ship. You have no right to claim it. This is a neutral zone and not batarian space. Any hostile act will be returned, I suggest you stand down and leave before you start a war Admiral." Getting the rest of the Alliance ships on the com, "Hawking move with a cruiser and a wolf packet behind the nearest planet and launch everything you have. All wolf packs I want you to attack the through the top and bottom, slash and run, and the cruisers break into two groups and force the Batarians to cluster. Only enact this plan if they commit a hostile act. Cutter out."

Seeing this as an insult Kor Vesh has his fleet open fire. As soon as Serina detects the weapons energy build up, she hacks into the hostile ships and turns off their targeting sensors, rendering the rail guns inert. Cutter puts his ship in the line of fire to protect the Everest and lets loose with a blistering barrage, the MAC roars to life and vaporizes the other dreadnaught. Unable to bring their targeting sensors back online the formation is ravaged by the storm of disruptor torpedoes that the charging frigates and fighters launched. Small, 10 megaton, nuclear explosions rock sections of the Batarian line as the Spirits few longswords rush into battle. Trying to scatter the batarians are herded back into the slaughter by the Alliance cruisers, their rail guns are lofting their 28 kilo slugs every few seconds. Cutter then fires another wave of torpedoes and in a single Shiva missile toward the enemy.

The batarians under heavy pressure from all sides turn pale when the Spirit fires thousands of missiles. No ship should be able to carry that many torpedoes. The guardian lasers are quickly overwhelmed. Then something strange happened, the lead ships were not getting hit. The disruptor torpedoes savaged the back lines leaving nothing but wreckage and death in their wake. The ships at the front and middle of the fleet simply vanished as the Shiva detonated right in the middle of their fleet. A few moments of searing heat and then nothing as the batarians and their foolish admiral withered before the might of the UNSC.

The rest of the salvage operation was conducted without incident. It took three more days to ensure that the Everest can withstand a FTL and Relay jump with killing herself or her crew. In the meantime Vice Admiral Preston Cole was successfully revived from cryo sleep with the majority of his crew. After getting over his initial shock and confusion, he agreed to meet with Adm. Hackett and consider following Cutters example and joining the Alliance.

Like the Spirit, she is rebuilt and refitted as Adm. Cole, through tired of war, sees this galaxy as a better place, a more hopeful, peaceful place. Here humanity has a better future than back in the Orion arm and the unlikely chance of humanity surviving the Human-Convent War. He agrees to join the Alliance with the Everest. His Valiant class super-heavy cruiser is easily the most powerful ship in Citadel space and is their most heavily guarded secret.

**Milky Way**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**2589**

For the next two decades the System Alliance is trying to adapt the UNSC technology onto their ships, but it seems that the mass effect technology is incompatible with the UNSC slipspace drives. UNSC medical technology is deemed obsolete with medigel being far better than biofoam. The other technology the SA has tried to replicate is the inertial dampening system that the UNSC ships use and the Mjolnir Armor of the Spartans, they have had little success because of lack of proper materials and nonexistent manufacturing ability. The one notable success is the incorporation of the MAC gun onto the Alliance dreadnoughts. Do to size and power constraints only dreadnoughts can effectively use this weapon, the SSV Tai Shan is currently the only dreadnaught outfitted with this new weapon. It being a new construction made it easier to install on a fresh hull than attempt a dangerous and costly overhaul of an existing ship. This ship become Adm. Hackett's flagship upon completion.

The System Alliance, in comparison to the UNSC, is a well-trained but inexperienced military. The S.A. has not fought a major conflict since the First Contact War, a minor skirmished if viewed through the eyes of the crews of the Everest and Spirit of Fire. They were unprepared for the Blitz and recently rogue Spector Saren Arterius and his geth army to take Eden Prime. If it wasn't for the Normandy's shake-down cruise and the efforts of Commander Shepard than the colony would have been lost. This resulted in the UNSC officers creating their version of a war college and relentlessly grinding in the lesson they learned during the Human-Covenant War to the Alliance. The Spartans have been put in charge of all N class Special Forces training, much to the dismay of the potential applicants. This additional training has not gone unnoticed by the Citadel Council, who have increased the amount of peace-keeping operations the System Alliance are able to do.

The events on Eden Prime and the Citadel has resulted in Humanity gaining a Spector and a new foe. The Geth along with Saren are the deadliest threat that the Systems Alliance has yet to encounter but for the crews of the former UNSC now SSV Everest (the original SSV Everest is renamed the K2) and Spirit of Fire these robots are nothing compared to the Covenant. This leaves many homesick marine and sailor cursing their bad luck and drawing comparisons, what if the Covenant found these guys? They would be even worse off than the UNSC. This question leads to growing tension between the two groups of humans but thankfully it is a quiet contempt, the new kids in the eyes of the UNSC veterans have to earn their respect, which thankfully does not interfere with the delicate situation the UNSC finds themselves in.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the UNSC, an older man is watching the combat footage of the Spirit of Fire over Elysium, the deployment of then ODSTs, and combat prowess of the Spartan IIs. Taking a puff of his cigar he changes the screen to a technical readout of the ship. Size, mass, power readings, crew size, weapons load out and more scrolls across several screen. The data is looked at and processed by piercing blue eyes. The room back-lit by a dying star. A wave of hand and the Everest' profile and statistical information is shown. "This changes everything, a voice from over the man shoulder says in a cocky Australian accent.

Taking another puff the man puts down his cigar and replies, "No these people are the key to humanities ascendency in this galaxy. I want you to start a long-term project, find out everything about them, and try to subvert them to our cause."

* * *

Sorry for the wall of text still. I can't seem to get the story to accept indents. Can anyone help me with this? Thank you for the feedback on the previous chapter. I know my grammar is poor, I was never good at in school so please understand I am trying. As for guest reviews, I would prefer not to have them because I can't easily address any questions or misinterpretations. Still any feedback is still good feedback so enjoy.


	4. Events Unfolding

The primary purpose of the Chapter was to introduce the Supercarrier, its stat line(italics are used to describe stat further), and some important timeline events. It changed to include some hopefully good character development and some humor. Enjoy.

**Chapter 4**

**Reach**

**UNSC Fortress World**

**2589**

**Year: 2576:** Forerunner technology given by Mendicant Bias is slowly becoming widespread. The UNSC and the UEG has been elevated from a Tier 3 to a low Tier 2 Civilization. Some of the many technological marvels include; Forerunner Star reactors, Hardlight Weapons, Enhanced shields, armor, engines, and slipspace drives, instantaneous slipspace communication, matter convertors, and medical nanites.

**Year: 2578: **Reach is recolonized. Roughly 20 percent of the planet remains uninhabitable. It has an improved defense grid under construction along with several of the newest Forerunner enhanced shipyards. The Imperium, despite the leadership of Thel Vadam and the rest of the Imperial Council is slowly declining into crisis level due to ONI, Storm, and Covenant Remnant pressure.

**Year 2580:** The Storm has focused their efforts at eliminating the Arbiter to regain Sangheilios. The Imperium's defenses are rapidly being overwhelmed. The Arbiter requests UNSC aid. Fleet Admiral Lord Hood sends several Sierra and India battlegroups to help the Imperium. With Adm. Lasky in command on broad the Infinity. Capt. Tornabene is also in this fleet. The construction of at least seven more Infinity class warships are almost complete.

**Year 2582:** The Forerunner enhanced shipyards on Earth, Reach, and several inner colonies have been refitting, enhancing, and slowly building new UNSC ships. The fleet is almost back half of its pre-war level. The Valiant Class heavy cruiser is in wide spread use along with at least 10 Infinities. The Construction of the now named Admiral Preston Cole Class Super Carrier is 75 percent complete with three more at lesser stages of completion.

**Year 2583:** The Imperium and the UNSC Navy has been slowly gathering evidence pointing to ONI actively subverting the Imperium. A key event was the destruction of an important diplomatic mission which was destroyed by Ruda class nuclear weapons, along with the Righteous Fury a CAS class assault carrier and the Nelson one of the few remaining Trafalgar class super carriers.

**Year 2583: **ONI has been charged with treason and is being reorganized. It's High Command and most of its Kilo 5 Black Ops units go rogue. These radical elements have joined the resurgent Insurrection causing widespread damage throughout UNSC space. ONI is rebuilt as MI (military intelligence) and is tasked to hunt down rogue ONI operatives. Section 0 is created solely to prevent MI from going rogue.

**Year 2585: **Besieged by multiple threats both the UNSC and Imperium's armed forces, the Sword of the Imperium enter a formal alliance in the name of the Mantle to protect themselves and the legacy of the Forerunners. Technology is traded with the Imperium and the UNSC speeds up ship production. A Second Great War is forming.

**Year 2588: **All four Adm. Preston Cole class supper carriers are put into service. The ships are named after several heroes from the Great War. The Adm. Preston J Cole, the Adm. Danforth Whitcomb, the Adm. Michael Stanford, and the Capt. Jacob Keyes.

_Specifications of the Admiral Preston Cole Class Supercarrier_

**Length**: 17km

**Height**: 3km

**Width**: 1.7km

**Weapons**:

_Fore (Front)_

3 Series 10 MACs

Capable of firing three standard MAC rounds (600 ton Heavies) in rapid succession

1 Mk V Super MAC

1 Energy Projector

2 Shedder Type Hardlight Cannons

_Dorsal (Top)_

20 Plasma Turrets (Capable of firing standard Torpedoes or the Lance upgrade first used by Cortana over Reach during Operation First Strike)

20 Ballistae Missile Pods (40 per pod)

10 Archer Missile Pods (60 per pod)

15 Shiva missile launchers (2 per launcher)

_Broadsides_

15 Plasma Turrets

25 Dual Turrets of Mini- MACs

20 200mm Railguns

50 Ballistae Missile Pods

10 Archer Missile Pods

10 Shiva Missile Launchers

30 Smasher Type Hardlight Cannons

10 Swarm Energy Missile Launchers

_Ventral (bottom)_

40 Ballistae Missile Pods

30 Archer Missile Pods

5 Shiva Missile Launchers

10 Smasher Type Hardlight Cannons

10 200mm Railguns

3 Dual Turrets of Mini-MACs

1 Energy Projector

_Point Defense Batteries: Hundreds_

Single Battery

1 50mm Gauss Cannon

2 Pulse Laser Cannons

4 70mm Cannons

2 Medusa Missile Pods

_2 NOVA grade missiles_

**Armor**:

Primary Layer: 1.5 meters of Titanium A5 battle plate and Forerunner Alloy

Secondary layer: 2.5 meters of Titanium A5 Battle plate

_Capable of resisting an energy projector for 1 minute of continuous fire_

_Capable of resisting a single ODP MAC impact_

**Shields**

Advanced Forerunner Shielding

Guardian Grade

_Can with withstand numerous MAC rounds, Plasma Torpedoes, Energy Projectors, Shiva Nukes_

_Can be dropped by a NOVA grade warhead_

**Powerplant:**

Dual Star Reactors

_Output is equal to a Main Sequence Star_

**Propulsion**:

Enhanced Infinity Style Engines

Forerunner Grade Slipspace Drive

**Forerunner enhanced communications and sensor package**

**Internal Ship Hangar**:

10 Frigates

4 Destroyers

1 Halcyon Light Cruiser

_Or a combination of_

Mass Convertors

Mass Replicators

_To act as a repair and refit station for its battle group as well as itself_

**Advanced Stealth Systems**

**Total Crew Size: 50 Thousand**

**Marine Contingent**:

_1 Marine Division_

_Organic Air and Naval Assets_

_3 ODST Battalions _

_3 Organic Armored Companies_

**Aircraft:**

_Thousands_

Broadsword Light fighters

Katana Heavy Fighters

Claymore Bombers

_Replaced the older Shortsword_

100 Forerunner Reaper SUCAVs

Pelican Dropships

Stealth Pelican Dropships

Albatross Heavy Dropships

**AIs**:

_2 Smart AIs_

1 Fleet class Smart AI

_Standard Smart AI_

1 EWAR class Smart AI

_A Smart AI optimized for Cyber warfare due to rogue ONI agents more factions can produce military grade smart AIs_

_Dozens of Dumb AIs_

**Year 2589: **Captain Tornabene is promoted after units under his command were instrumental in winning several major skirmishes in Imperium and UNSC space. He is promoted to Rear Admiral and given command of the _Adm. Whitcomb_, one of the four Adm. Cole class super carriers. He is than given a mission directly by Mendicant Bias that directly relates to the challenge of obtaining the Mantle of Responsibility.

**Reach**

**Citadel Base**

**2589**

The past decade has proven one thing about humanity and that is that war is ever present and is the one thing we excel at. Barely thirty years have passed since we were at the edge of extinction. Now we have grown and are becoming the arbiters of the galaxy. The shaky peace of the Orion Arm is starting to collapse, another war is on the horizon.

Sitting in his hotel room, Tornabene is still in a state of shock over his promotion. It is not official yet. All Adm. Lasky did was hint at it. He and his crew have been given two weeks of shore leave, something unheard of during the Great War. Sometimes he misses that conflict because the new kids entering the Fleet are too cocky for their own good or so it seems to the forty something year old officer. Getting ready for his promotion party, he is meeting with a large group of friends that happen to be on Reach, friends that were lucky to survive the Great War, his bridge crew, and a handful of Sangheili. He is part of a small but growing population that has forgiven the Imperium and sees them as worthy allies and friends not as murderous xenos. His comm pad goes off, its 19:00 hours (7:00pm) and he rushes out the door in his work uniform.

Walking into one of the private ballrooms in the hotel the UNSC anthem blares in the background as his friends rush to embrace him. After the initial chaos the party takes on a normal tone. Younger officers try to get face time with the senior ones. Old combat buddies talk quietly about lost friends over glasses of whisky. The dance floor is filled with young officers, beautiful young women, and navy wives. Working his way through the crowd Tornabene feels the stress and exhaustion of the past year long deployment fade from memory, it might also be the result of his fourth glass of whiskey.

Just after he finishes his glass, his best friend from the academy walks over, Captain Mickey Weiks and hands him a glass of scotch and water. "How have you've been Drew? It's what five years since we last saw each other?"

"Yeah something like that," replies Tornabene, "I have been doing a lot of thinking about the Imperium ever since the Forerunner planet."

"So I've heard. Are you really starting to trust those split-lip bastards? We were together on the front-lines since the beginning of this war. Hell you watched your home get glassed while there were still people on it. And don't try to hide the discomfort of your scar."

Wincing at the mention of his scar, a souvenir from a boarding action that left a plasma sword blade deep inside his shoulder. Tornabene response, "I know what they did to my home, I was next to the Trafalgar over Reach when she was cut in half. My destroyer preformed so many Danger Close and Final Protective Fire missions that I am sure we killed several hundred marines and civilians. Still would you do what they did, betrayed their leaders to fight against the very system they controlled, all while being led by a war criminal? I can respect that moral courage and they did save Earth."

Weiks shakes his head, "They did that to save their own skins. I would not trust them to save any human if they could help it."

Shaking his head Tornabene replied, "I have seen them do that first hand, I was about to be killed by a dam Promethean knight and the elite, Rtas, jumped in front of the gun saving me and killing my attacker. It nearly cost him his life. They have grown to respect our capability and tenacity. The least we should do is give them a chance." Knocking back half of his scotch, "Hell they are helping to rebuild Reach and the other inner colonies as we were screwing them over. Fucking ONI Bastards, why give them a reason to start another war. I am glad that ONI is gone for one thing."

"I'll drink to that," replies Weiks rising his glass, "Maybe you're right to give them a chance but I still can't bring myself to forgive them. Over 30 billion people died, most of them civilians. That still causes my blood to boil in a hot rage to think about what good has come from the Imperium."

"It will be like every other war, at first both sides will despise each other and over the time feelings will be mended as mutual respect is gained. Hell when we are put into a retirement home our grandkids and great grandkids will ask about the Great War and really won't understand because they have grown up on a mixed species colony or their best friend is a sangheili." Finishing off his scotch he says one last thing to his old friend, "At least that is what I wish for."

"Hmmm," replies Weiks as he too finishes off his scotch, "Nice dream but it is up to us to make it a reality. I might give it a try and allow for a unit of Spear troops on my ship, by the way I got one of the new Reach class battleships she is called the Centurion. It might help me get over my rage and give the new kids some inspiration for your hopelessly romantic future."

With the conversation over Weiks goes off into the crowd to find his wife and lead her to the dance floor. Seeing his old friend and wife dancing a frown comes over his relaxed features, his family was killed during the invasion of Reach. A small amount of rage does surface as Tornabene grips his empty glass tightly. Focusing on calming down he fails to notice two large figures enter the room.

Supreme Commander Rtas Vadum and one of his acknowledged daughters Shipmistress Rha' Vadum enter. The party comes to an abrupt halt as everyone snaps to attention, some with blank looks, some with looks of shock mixed with wonder, but most have barely concealed raged showing on their faces as they salute the admiral equivalent. Ignoring the glares as the party slowly picks back up, the two Sangheili head straight for Tornabene. Before they reach them a young naval officer carefully approaches. "Sir I just want to say thank you, my dad fought in Voi and later on the Ark. Thank you for bringing him home," says the young man as he offers his hand to Rtas. Rtas nods and shakes it.

Tornabene by this point walks over and gives the traditional Sangheili greeting. "How was that?" asks Tornabene.

Rtas shakes his head and smiles, "Better, now your accent is similar to a child that it best culled but your grammar is acceptable. I can't stay long the Arbiter gets nervous when I am not killing the foes of the Imperium. I just came to congratulate you and my daughter wanted to see you. I must take my leave now." With that the large sangheili turns and walks from the party.

Looking at the Shipmistress Tornabene smiles at her obvious discomfort and asks, "Want to join me for a drink?"

"That would be acceptable," after a few moments of hesitation, "Nothing strong please heavy drinking and intoxication is look down upon on Sanghelios."

Shrugging Tornabene has two glass of Markers Mark on the rocks brought to their table. "Sip it slowly, this whiskey is a few hundred years old." Taking a small snip he shivers as the alcohol slides down his throat and warms his belly. "Very smooth," he comments as he takes another sip.

Rha copies his actions and nearly spits out the fiery liquor, "You drink this for pleasure?" ask the female sangheili, "It is horrible."

Laughing Tornabene replies, "It is an acquired taste but this is excellent whiskey try not to waste it. So last time we meet you left off at the test for your sword, what happened?"

Cocking her head to the side Rha tries the whiskey on last time and sets the glass down with a shake of her head. "The test is simple, survive thirty rounds of sparing. Your master, typically the swordsman who sired you, tires their hardest to kill you. If you survive or disarm your opponent you win and gain the right to forge your blade. If you loss then you are dead. Some are spared but that is considered a grave dishonor and usually commit suicide."

Tornabene chokes on the whiskey when he realized she had to fight Rtas. The scenes of him cleaving through Flood and Promethean Knights with ease causes him to look at her in wonder. "So you had to fight Rtas, I am impressed and amazed that you survived, I saw him in battle and he is a whirlwind of blades and death."

Smiling Rha, "Yes normally it would be an uncle or another swordsman part of your clan with similar skill set but being a female I must be better than average. I choose to fight my father, one the greatest sword masters alive, it was hard. Sometimes at night I still feel the heat of his blades inches from my vitals. I know this is a poor question but have you fought against any Zealots?"

Frowning, "Yes. It was during the Fall of Reach. After the Trafalgar was cut in half, my destroyer was protecting one of the orbital defense posts. A CRS light cruiser jumped right in front of my ship. I killed it with a pair of MAC rounds, but before it exploded it must have released several Spec Ops units and my ship was boarded. As the marines and ODST were fighting to contain the boarders a small strike team managed to get to the bridge. The two fire teams defending the corridors were pushed back. I grab a shotgun from the command cryo bay and told my bridge crew to seal the door from the inside. I shot and killed one elite to save a corporals life. I was then stabbed from behind. Shaking me off his blade a maroon colored elite decloaked and started laughing as he was going to finish me off. The corporal I saved hit the bastard with an overloaded plasma round knocking its shields down. He was roaring when I cut him in half with my shotgun. He was the last one left. I was patched up quickly and crudely in the med-bay and was back on the bridge assisting marines on the surface."

With that painful remembrance over with the conversation moves on to better things as more and more people filter in. Tornabene introduces Rha to several of his friends. Weiks gave her a luke-warm welcome. His bridge crew is grateful that she saved their lives over Sigma Octanus IV. Though she hated the whiskey Rha remarks, "This music is pleasant and relaxing."

Over hearing that comment a group of fighter jocks from the Avery whisper amongst themselves. One of the more drunken pilot's saunters over, saluting both officers, the squadron leader, call sign Reaper asks Rha to dance. She throws the drunk at his laughing comrades, knocking them over like bowling pins. The Reaper does not take the hint and tries again. This time Rha looks at Tornabene who just smiles and shakes his head, she says yes and the band plays a short slow song. The party broke up around midnight.

**Reach**

**Citadel Base**

**Three Days Later**

In a secure briefing center 80km beneath the surface of Reach, Capt. Tornabene is standing in front of FAdm. Harper, "In recognition of years of service. In going above and beyond the call of duty. For a record of success in combat not seen since the Great War. I hereby promote Capt. Drew Tornabene to the rank of Rear Admiral of the UNSC Naval forces. You are now ordered to take command of a small mixed battle group for a special mission of vital importance. Mission briefing in twenty minutes. Good luck admiral."

**Orbital Shipyards**

**Later that Day**

With his bridge crew from the Johnson they are going to their new home. Radm. Tornabene has yet to tell them they are being given a super carrier. Three of them are in orbit around Reach. Easily visible they are giants among dwarfs. "Pilot," Tornabene calls out, "Make your way to the hangar of the Adm. Whitcomb." The pilots reply was unacknowledged as Tornabene smiles at the shocked faces of his crew.

On broad the executive officer has an honor guard ready to greet the newly minted rear admiral. Two platoons of ODSTs line the walkway, along with two squads of Spartan IVs from Demon Company, Blue Team is arrayed around the XO along with several black armored Sangheili special operations ultras. As the ramp drops the assembled warriors snap to a crisp salute. Three AIs materialize and Taylor announces, "Rear Admiral Drew Tornabene Arriving." As he walks onto his new command the weight of responsibility feels heavy but looking at these young marines, Spartans, and the hard ass elites he feels the weight lift. It is up to him to ensure they come home and they will ensure that the mission is complete.

Walking up to his XO he gives the tradition sangheili greeting and adds "Shipmistress are we ready to RV with our battle group?"

Shipmistress Rha Vadum turns with their body guard of spec op sangheili make their way to the nearest tram car. "Yes Fleetmaster the ship is in prefect readiness, I personally inspected all divisions. We can move once your construct gives us the okay. May I ask what ships will join us and why is the ship hangar filled with a supply load out?"

The rear admiral replies, "We are meeting up with an Infinity class battlecarrier, the Asgard under the command of Capt. William Morris and its attendant frigates, two prowlers, and the Ghost. The Imperium is sending four ships; the Shadow of Intent commanded by Fleetmaster Indo Vadam and three CCS class battlecruisers, No Higher Honor, Promise of Atonement, and the Burning Heavens. As to why we have the supply load out is that we are going a long range/long duration scout and discover mission given to me by Mendicant Bias in direct relation to the obtainment of the Mantle."

Shipmistress Rha shakes her head at the news of the Fleetmaster. "I saw that look," remarks Tornabene, "What is wrong with the Fleetmaster?"

Rha clasps her hands behind her back and cocks her head before replying, "Nothing just he annoys me to no end. I choose to join your ship to grow as a warrior and to get away from my obligation on Sanghelios, which was to marry him. My father wanted a way to better cement his clan with that of the Arbiters. Both of us are of age and our fathers invoked an ancient right and arranged the marriage. That is why he annoys, we have had a friendly rivalry since we hatched and currently he is ahead.

Shaking his head he steps onto the bridge of the Whitcomb, "Taylor let's get this show on the road."

The ships gather around the titanic carrier and move out of the crowded space around Reach. Half way to the system edge they jump, their slipspace drives tearing a hole in this dimension as they plunge into alternate one. Several weeks later they RV with the Sword Task Group Herald of Damnation. The various captains, shipmasters, and the fleetmaster meet on the Whitcomb. The search plan is laid out. Mendicant gave them several star systems to search and a power signature to find. Dividing the ships up, they will start with the outlaying systems and work their way inward. Leaving drones and probes in their wake to ensure that no one sneaks up on the battle group.

The Whitcomb will take this central system marked Kryik, and the Shadow of Intent will take this system named Nihlus in the star charts once the rest of the area is searched the ships will relocate to the Shanxi system and start over. The slipspace journey will take at least two months, it is the past current boundary of UNSC space. The only saving grace is that is in the total opposite direction of war zone. Radm. Tornabene just be for entering cryo thinks, this mission is a wild goose chase. This battle group would be better used in getting the Mantle by glassing Doisac (the Brute homeworld) or have one the Spartans or Sangheili put an energy blade through Jul'Mdama's chest, not to fly away from the battlefield, however, orders are orders. Since these orders and mission came down from Mendicant Bias and Fadm. Hood means this is officially a holy wild goose chase.


	5. The Familiar in Unfamilar Places part 1

11

**Chapter 5**

**Milky Way**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Spider Nebula**

**Citadel**

**2589**

Leaving the Citadel new created Specter John Shepard gathers his crew on the Normandy and heads towards the cockpit, after a brief conversation with Joker, Shepard decides to speak to the crew. Engaging the intercom system he begins, "This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders: Find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, crew. This mission isn't going to be easy. We all know what happened on Eden Prime. We saw the destruction. We saw the bodies. We saw what Saren did. And I plan to make him pay! For too long our species has stood apart from the others. It's time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy! Time to show them what humans are made of! When we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us. That does not matter for wherever Saren goes, we'll follow. Wherever he searches for the Conduit, we'll be there. We will hunt him to the very ends of the galaxy and bring him down. So it's up to us. We're the only ones who can stop Saren. I swear to you all, we will stop him!"

Finishing his speech and turning to Joker who said in reply, "Well said, Commander. Captain would be proud."

Shepard staring out the forward viewport replies, "The captain's not here. I'm in charge now, Joker, and time's wasting. Get this bird in the air." Turning he heads to the CIC to plot a course to the Artemis Tau cluster, "We have an asari to recover."

The Normandy pulls away from Dock 422 and Joker pilot's her through the crowded space heading toward the relay. Being that the Normandy is military and a Specter ship it gets priority over the rest of the traffic. The relay glows blue as tendrils of energy pull the Normandy into the corridor. As massive pulse and the frigate launched across the Traverse. Three days later the Normandy drops into the Artemis Tau Cluster and begins to hunt for Therum.

**Attican Traverse**

**Artemis Tau**

**Therum**

**2589**

After coming up dry on the first two system they find the planet in the Knossos System. According to the Codex and the ships sensors it is a volcanically active world that has numerous ruins and heavy mining industries are scattered over its surface. Shepard heads down to the garage and has Garrus, Ashley, and Kaidan suit up. Going over to the weapons locker he pulls out his favorite weapon, the shotgun, being a vanguard he excels at CQC. "Garrus I want you to take your viper or equalizer, we may need the fire rate instead of your mantis. Kaidan pistol choice is up to you. Ash go for one your rifles that can sustain automatic fire, you're on support duty." A chorus of yes commander is shot back as the team gathers their weapons.

The intercom clicks on and Joker says, "ETA ten minutes to the drop Commander, scans are showing heavy geth activity so be ready for a long trip." At five minutes the team piles into the Mako and waits for the stomach crunching drop as Joker swoops in low, bay door open and drops the Mako. Free-falling for a few seconds the harnesses bite into their armored shoulders as the IFV's drop jets engage almost cushioning the landing. The landing is rough, the ground very rocky and the presence of numerous lava beads makes driving hazardous. Pushing through the drop zone our target area is roughly five kilometers away. As Shepard guns the Mako the rest of the team is bounced around hard in their seats due to the terrain and the driving quirks of the infantry fighting vehicle.

Continuing along a raised section of harden lava, the Normandy reports strange readings out ahead. "Eyes open Ash," Shepard calls out to the marine gunner, "Radar is starting to pick something up, something big. At this point a shadow glides over the IFV, the ominous wasp like profile of a Geth Frigate. It hovers for a brief moment before deploying a pair of Armatures. Seeing the threat, Ashely quickly fires a 155mm main cannon round and a burst of machine gun fire at the closet walker. Killing it, the walker explodes. She does not have time for another long range shot because the other walker fired its main weapon at the charging Mako. Shepard hits the jets jumping the round and then rams the Armature. As it struggles to get to its feet, Ashely fires another heavy round, knocking it into the adjacent lava pit. The walker slowly sinks as the molten metal eats away at the geth unit.

The rest of the drive was uneventful till a small mining outpost was reached. The Geth set up several rocket turrets and barricades to stop any vehicle. Using the superior optics and range of the main gun the outer defense were destroyed one by one. Rushing into the courtyard the team disembarks while Ashley stays on the turret providing suppressive fire. The team moves from building to building under the cover of the Mako's cannons. The few geth that are left are quickly put with a combination of biotic strength and well placed armor piercing rounds (AP) from Garrus. They find the gate controls in the warehouse on the right. A handful of grenades soften up any geth inside before Shepard rolls in bring his shotgun to bear on the nearest target, a geth shock trooper, a heavy blast from the carnage mode turned the robot into a pile of scrap metal. Covering Kaidan while he hacks the gate controls, several geth charge the warehouse and the Mako. The geth juggernaut lets loose with a barrage of rockets blasting chunks of armor off the light tank. Ashley spitting some blood from her mouth replies with a fusillade of lead. Garrus reduces the geth one by one with single head shots after Shepard knocks their shields offline with alternating blast of buckshot and biotics. With the area secured and the gates open, Garrus runs up to the Mako and slaps some Omigel on the bullet holes and shrapnel gouges. "Good as new Commander," he says when he climbs back in. Kaidan is done patching up Ashley with medigel.

Continuing to the strange readings more geth combat teams were encountered and quickly eliminated by direct fire from the Mako. The only challenge was when an Armature began firing from a cliff top. A concentrated barrage aimed at the cliff face had the rock collapsing crushing the mech underneath tons of debris. This scene was repeated until the team reach a collection of rocks near the mine entrance that was impassable. Now on foot they move carefully up to the collection of buildings. The radar hits a jamming field just as the team moves into a large crater. A Geth sniper and several rocket troopers on the crater walls and towers open fire as geth soldiers' advance. Garrus on overwatch surgically removes the enemy sniper in a single round, he then moves on to the rocket geth. His semi-auto sniper quickly suppressed the geth rockets leaving Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan to deal with the two geth fire teams in the bowl of the crater.

"Ash take the middle cover point, Kaidan the rear, I've got the front," yells Shepard as the squad takes incoming rocket fire. Dispersing to their assign points they wait for Garrus to deal with the long range threat. As the rain of rockets stop the geth infantry moves up. "Ash, I want you to focus your fire on any geth that have had their shields dropped by warp. Kaidan target the geth on at a time with warp to soften them up. I deal with any that get close. Garrus keep the rocket team covered but also thin the geth that charge us." With his orders finished Shepard actives a biotic barrier and lays down a wave of shotgun fire. As the geth charge through this wall of lead they are getting picked off by precise biotic warps and bursts of assault weapons fire. The last one a, destroyer, gets close enough to hit Shepard. As he flies through the air, Kaidan hits the destroyer with a powerful lift, Garrus fires off an overload that zaps its shield. Helplessly floating the destroyer is reduce to scrape metal by a powerful carnage round from Shepard as Ashely covers the rocket geth killing them in a stream of mass accelerator rounds. With the crater clear the team pushes forward to the mine shaft.

The geth jamming signature is still active so the team is blind to the upcoming ambush. Just before the mine entrance is a geth hopper waiting to trigger it. Moving into its sensor range, it wakes up and sends a signal to the waiting frigate and then moves to begin harassment fire. Dodging the initial burst of fire from the hopper the team hears a familiar roar and shadow pass over head, another geth frigate flies over just as another hopper emerges along with six geth infantry. The Frigate hovers for a minute and drops an armature in front of the entrance. "Scatter," shouts Shepard as the geth open fire. Shields are hit as they dive into cover. They target the geth infantry first and pick them off in between dodging the heavy rounds of the Armature. The radar clears up as Garrus snipes the pair of hoppers, the last one is shredded by an assassination round.

With the support units destroyed the team takes aim at the armature. Combinations of warp and overload knock down its shields as AP rounds burrow into its armored hide. The three marines hurl a bunch of grenades at the armature. The overlapping explosions expose a weak point in the neck, Garrus puts four rapid fire rounds into the opening. As he rolls from the cover that the armature just destroyed, his rifle overheating, the neck snapped do to the damage from Garrus superlative shooting. Shepard seeing his opening rushes and slides beneath the decapitated mech, using warp to weaken the underside armor he follows it up with a carnage shot to blow a hole in its vitals. Taking out a grenade, he thumbs the firing pin and pushes inside the mech. Shepard, crouching, starts to run out of the danger zone as he detonates the grenade blowing the armature to pieces.

With the last external obstacle removes the team charges their weapons, applies medigel, and begins to head underground. Once opening the door something is wrong, it should be a mine shaft not a covered pathway. The metal is silver-white with strange flowing runes that light up as the humans get close. Near the end of the descent a small group of geth open fire with a rocket barrage destroying the elevator and scaffolding. They were quickly killed by Garrus and Ashley with their sniper rifles. Looking around a section of wall lights up as Shepard gets close and opens. Seeing no other way the team heads down this side passage. Despite the extreme age of everything else in here this part of the dig site seems pristine.

Movement through the ruin went quickly, no more hostiles were found, until they came to an open chasm above a massive magma lake. Garrus moves up first, scouting with his rifle, "No way across Commander, Looks like a dead end."

Shaking his head in frustration Shepard walks up to Garrus as Kaidan and Ashley pull security. "Dam," says Shepard, "Now we have to waste move time backtracking to find a new way down." Just before he finishes surveying the scene, two slender pillars emerge and stop just pass chest height. A holo screen similar to what is on the Normandy but different flickers on. Shepard turns it investigate it, one button though written in the same pattern as the other glowing runes seem to jump out at him. He presses it expecting no tensile feedback like any other holographic interface but is surprised that it feels solid. In response two pairs of columns extend from beneath both sides of the chasm and emit a strange blue bridge. Not trusting it completely the team throws a few rocks and shoots it twice, satisfied that the bridge is solid they quickly move across and back on track to rescue Liara.

Liara floating in a protean security bubble notices a section of wall glow then open depositing three humans and a turian onto her level. "Can you hear me out there? I am trapped! I need help!" calls Liara out as we approach.

"Dr. T'soni?" asks Shepard, "Do you need assistance and are you alright?"

Liara still floating, "This thing is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it. All right?"

Still suspicious of her motives Shepard asks about her mother, "Your mother is working for Saren. Whose side are you on?"

Liara shocked and confused replies strongly, "What? I am not on anybody's side! I may be Benezia's daughter, but I'm nothing like her! I have not spoken to her in years. Please. Just get me out of here."

Satisfied, Shepard is trying figure out how to get past the energy field. Looking around a similar panel pops up near the energy field. Walking over Shepard hits the button that feels right. Instead of a subtle dropping of the barrier the panel malfunctions causing a cascading failure. Power relays on the lower levels overload and explode knocking the team to the ground, shutting down the barrier, and causing an earthquake. Getting up quickly the team moves forward to secure Liara. "How do we get out of here," questions Shepard.

"There is an elevator back in the center of the tower. At least, I think's it's an elevator. It should take us out of here. Come on!" replies Liara. Moving to the back of the room the whole complex starts to shake cutting off any conversation. Kaidan quickly hits the elevator button as Shepard calls for immediate evac. Liara informs them that the ruins are not stable and the volcano is starting to erupt because of the previous series of explosions.

The elevator reaches the top and the team are meet by a Korgan Warlord and his attending geth. The Warlord calls out to Shepard, "Surrender. Or don't. That would be more fun."

Shepard shocked at how stupid this mission has become, "In case you didn't notice, this place is falling apart."

The Korgan not caring replies in an arrogant fashion, "Exhilarating, isn't it?" With that guns are drawn and the battle begins. It is quickly over when Liara glowing blue unleashes a singularity that trapped the geth in a swirling vortex. Ashley throws a grenade and shoots what's left after the detonation. Before having a chance to attack or put up a barrier the Korgan is rocked by an overload and a pair of warps. Shaken he spits out a glob of blood and charges right into a hail of fire. Brought to his knees by the wall of lead he stares defiantly at Shepard, "You can't win, Saren will drown the galaxy in the resurgent horde. My people, those who follow Saren will have our revenge in a wave of blood." Those were his last words before Shepard blow his head to pieces with a shot round at point blank range.

The lava breaking through the rock and metal the team runs up the scaffolding dodging the debris raining down. Outside they watch the molten rock surge upward enveloping all in its path. The Normandy cuts through the smoke and ash and lowers the hangar door. As the team runs up the ramp the lava reaches the tops of the building. Joker pulls away just before the Normandy is turned to molten goo. Breathing heavily the team moves to the briefing room. Still dazed from the near death experience Joker clicks on the comm and in his sarcastic voice, "Too close, Commander. Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulphur. The Normandy isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. Just for future reference."

Liara shocked at Joker's attitude replies, "We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?" Shepard just brushes this comment aside. She continues, "Hmm… It must be a human thing. I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species Commander. But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there. And not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me. Or dragged me off to Saren."

Kaidan interrupts with a question, "What did Saren want with you? Do you know something about the Conduit?"

Liara nods and begins her explanation, "Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. That is my real area of expertise. I have spent the past fifty years trying to figure out what happened to them. Also the ruins that you find me in were unique, I am sure you noticed the two different architecture and materials there. How the Prothean ruins where on top of some other ancient ruins. I could not get any to response to me and yet they turned on for you Shepard. Also I am young among the Asari, only 106 and that is why most dismiss my theories on what happened to the Protheans."

Shepard begins, "I've got my own theory about why the Protheans disappeared."

Liara does not think highly of Shepard's declaration at first but shares some of her own ideas, "there is little evidence to support the mystery of why the Protheans are gone. It seems that someone purposely destroyed all the records. But that is not the most incredible part. According to findings, the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. This cycle began long before them."

Shepard just as disbelieving challenges Liara, who replies, "I have been working on this for fifty years. I have tracked down every scrap and shred of evidence. Eventually, subtle patterns started to emerge. Patterns that hint at the truth. The problem is that it is a vague collection no singular point or piece of hard evidence."

Shepard pressing for more details about who came before leaves Liara stumped and she goes on to explain the cycle of extinction. Once that is done Shepard reveals his knowledge of the Reapers as a potential destroyers of the Protheans. Skeptical, Liara melds with Shepard's in hopes to assist him in understanding his vision. With that finished Liara is accepted into the crew as the resident Prothean expert and to keep her out of Saren hands. Feeling light-headed Liara is sent to the Medical bay. The rest of the team files out as Shepard contacts the Council. After a short conversation Shepard cuts the link in anger. "Joker," Shepard says over the comm, "Plot a course to Feros."

"Sure thing Commander, I guess the Council had nothing good to say. Also I am picking some strange readings in a neighboring system do you want me to plot course or send it to Alliance Command?" Says Joker from the helm.

"Send it to the Alliance, Joker. We have a rogue Spector to stop," replies Shepard.

In the depths of Feros, an ancient evil stirs as a being approaches. "This is not your grave Turian but you are welcome to it."

Saren replies, "A trade this one, motioning to the Asari behind him, in return for the Cipher."

The being regards the pair, "I accept now go before I change my mind." Saren once back onboard his ship orders the geth to wipe out the creature and the colony so no one can gain the cipher of the Protheans.


	6. The Shadows are slowly Illuminated

I got a lot of writing done yesterday and here is Chapter 6 a week ahead of schedule. Enjoy.

**Chapter 6**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Bridge of SSV Tai Shan**

**Heading to the Skylian Verge**

**2589**

"Admiral, there is a priority message for you coming from the Citadel," says Lieutenant Walker the officer of the deck. Hackett walks over to look at the message's cover letter. It is marked Top Secret Eyes Only. Rubbing his temples, Hackett nods to the young man and walks to the elevator heading for his cabin so he can find out what is so god dam important that it ruined his morning. Pausing long enough to grab a cup of strong navy black, he hopes the triple dosage of caffeine will help constraint his temper and headache that this message will bring.

Entering his cabin he post a pair of marines outside the door. Putting his coffee down next to his desk, Adm. Hackett activates the electronic countermeasures and counter intrusion software, gifts from the UNSC ONI agents on the Spirit and the Everest. A light above the door turns red then blinks green.

/Important Security and Intelligence Brief  
/CLEARANCE LEVEL-Top Secret: Eyes Only  
/FROM: Alliance Intelligence Division 2  
/TO: Adm. Steven Hackett, CNO, CO of Fifth Fleet  
/SUBJ: Missing Admiral

_As of last week Adm. Kahoku has gone missing while searching for a squad of marines tasked by the Admiral with tracking down leads against Cerberus. Beside the major increase in Cerberus capability that possibly abducting a ranking Alliance Officer, there has been a significant increase in hacking attempts trying to access UNSC files. Those attempts have been defeated by the UNSC "Advanced Cyberwarfare Systems" have been traced to known Cerberus hackers and techniques. Recommend immediate action to find Adm. Kahoku and degrade Cerberus Cyber assets. Also this coupled with a report from the Normandy has given a possible location of either the Admiral, his marines, or Cerberus. Recommend the deployment of N7 or Sierra grade operators. Message Ends._

A cold rage comes over the Admiral, Cerberus has been a minor thorn in the Alliances side for years but they have never done anything this drastic. This demands blood thinks Admiral Hackett. Taking a deep breath he activates the comm to Arcturus, and has the communication officer set a secure link routed through Arthur, the Everest had a backup AI installed. Arthur is now the controlling AI for the Alliance on Arcturus Station.

"Arthur," commands Hackett, "Connect me to Adm. Cole."

"One moment sir."

On the holopad in front of Hackett the figure of Adm. Cole forms. "Yes Sir?"

"Preston I am going to revel the Everest to the Council and to our enemies. A rogue faction of humanity has kidnapped an Alliance admiral. He was part of our intelligence unit dedicated to tracking down and eliminating Cerberus. I want you to personally investigate this and bring me back the head of whoever is responsible. I can't give you the Spirit because she is entering drydock. Your engineers think they can pull off a miracle. They are beginning to rebuild her slipspace drive and our wishes have been respected, no Alliance personnel directly involved with the project. Though Parliament wanted to get their hands on the technology you can always disavow your connection with us before the council to keep your secrets safe. I am giving the Omaha Beach, she is a corvette that we tested the Normandy's stealth systems on. I will have the coordinates of a strange transmission sent to you via Arthur. Hackett out."

Before leaving the communication room Cole sent an RV point to the Omaha Beach, to meet in the relay dead zone four hours in FTL outside of the Artemis Tau Cluster. "Sekmet have Red Team join us on this mission and once they are on-board plot a slipspace jump to these coordinates outside the Artemis Tau cluster." Walking up to the bridge and sitting in his command chair, Cole sighs once again war and death has come to him. This time however he won't need to spend lives in order to win, here in this region of the galaxy the UNSC are the true masters of the void.

As the ship moves away from the station heads on ever Alliance vessels watches. The Everest is roughly one-third the size of the 5 km space station. They continue to watch as the Everest does not move toward the relay but to a patch of open space. Picking up speed the ship begins its jump, it tears a whole in reality. The space around the valiant class heavy cruiser churns and boils as a lighting storm forms, and with a blue flash the 1.5 km long cruiser is gone. "Jump successful Adm. All systems are green. All non-essential personnel have been placed in cryo-suspension. ETA target coordinates is three days," reports Sekmet from her holopad by the command chair.

On-board the Tai Shen, Adm. Hackett has Arthur go over everything that Kahoku has been doing. With that done he looks at his next report, the ONI agents from the UNSC want more freedom to combat the Shadow Broker and other similar threats. They are also requesting a frigate and a private dockyard to refit it to their specifications. Normally Hackett would be leery of any request by the intelligence services but this recent incident has him thinking. Begrudgingly, he okays the request and forwards it to the Parliament and hoped this won't bite him in the ass later on.

Tearing back into reality the Everest waits for the Alliance corvette to arrive its longswords patrol the system to ensure no one sneaks up on the Everest. Five days later the SSV Omaha Beach drops out of FTL and docks with the Everest. Its commanding officer makes his way to the bridge of the Everest. Standing before the guardian of humanity the young officer salutes, "Sir Comdr. Craig Kimbrough reporting for orders Sir."

Cole turns and acknowledges the young man, "Son I want you take a fragment of my ships advanced VI and Red team to find that signal the Normandy discovered. Have Red team infiltrate the area and gather any intel. You are to provide orbital support for the operation. I will be sending a squad of marines, a pair of warthogs and pelicans, and the Spartans with a hard target penetration load out. Good luck and I want status reports every three hours once you have left FTL. Dismissed."

A few hours later the Omaha Beach went to FTL heading toward the Sparta System. In the hold of the corvette a few Alliance marines are looking at the UNSC vehicles. One of them asked the UNSC sergeant about their jeep. The Sargent turns around and begins in annoying yet humorous accent, "May I introduce you to the UNSCs Light-Reconnaissance Vehicle. It has 4-inch armor plating, MAG bumper suspension, a mounted machine gunner position, and total seating for three. Gentlemen! This is the M12 LRV! I like to call it the "Warthog".

Confused the Alliance marine asked a stupid question, "Why "Warthog", Sir?

The Sargent replied, "Because 'M12 LRV' is too hard to say in conversation, son." With his curiosity satisfied and the fact that no one wanted to hear this marine drone about something else the Alliance corporal saluted and walked back to his squad. The marines dispersed, some went to get food, sleep, or listen to music before the mission brief.

Two hours later Comdr. Kimbrough calls all of the combat teams to the hanger bay and begins the mission briefing, "The Normandy has discovered a strange signal in the Sparta System though garbled we have determined that it is Alliance and are sending Red Team to investigate it. The rest of the ground teams will stage airborne in the other pelican ready to assist the Spartan team. Mission is a go in two hours, final prep is in an hour and a half. Your codex's have been updated with the necessary information about the systems and its planets. That is all ladies and gentleman."

The Omaha Beach enters the orbit of Edolus and the pelicans are dispatched, with the Spartans hitting the ground first. Driving a short distance they come a across a flat bowl in the otherwise hilly barren terrain. In the bowl they find a burnt out tank, several dead bodies, and a communication tower. "Red 1 to Omaha actual, we have found the signal source and request permission for closer inspection."

"Omaha actual, Permission granted."

The Red Team drives into the bowl to confirm that the bodies are indeed the marines that Kahoku sent to gather intel on Cerberus. They were. Further examination of the signal transmitter reveals that it is putting out a garbled Alliance distress code. It is a trap, as the ground shakes and rumbles the Spartans remount the warthog. The earth shatters and a Thresher Maul erupts from below, throwing the warthog into the air. Leaping out of the destroyed vehicle, the Spartans open fire while still in the air. The Thresher reals back in pain as heavy slugs cut through its thick hide. It spits a glob of acid that Red Two easily side steps and dives back underground.

The Spartans warning off the approaching marines grab their heavy weapons; Jerome grabs his spartan laser, Alice her light machine gun, and Douglas his rocket launcher. Spreading out they wait for the Thresher to reemerge. The Thresher burst from the ground and is immediately shot at by Alice, as it turns to attack her Douglas fires four rockets in the space of four seconds as runs in the opposite direction. The thresher reels in pain and it hesitates long enough for the spartan laser to burn through its head. After a flash of red the thresher maul drops dead with a smoking whole in its head. Douglas destroyers the Comm beacon and they call down their pelican for evac, bringing the dead marines with them.

Back on board the Omaha Beach the Spartans explain that the marines were lured into a thresher maul nest. Comdr. Kimbrough, "Those marines were experienced they would not blunder into such an obvious trap."

Jerome explains, "The comm beacon was broadcasting an Alliance distress code. We have sent a copy to the Everest for analysis. Sir I suggest we report back to Adm. Cole for our next mission."

"Very well Spartan. Also no human has killed a thresher maul on foot before. You guys just made history."

"Sir, as Jerome walks away, "I am a Spartan."

Five hours later the Omaha Beach regrouped with Everest and got a data dump from Hackett. Sekmet has plotted a course to the planet Binthu in the Yangtze system. It will take about a week in slipspace. "Sekmet once we emerge into real space I want you to initiate a communication's loop and begin a trace and data mine of all outgoing transmissions," commands Cole. "Also have the Omaha beach dock with us so we can take her into slipspace with us."

"Yes sir. Course has been plotted and the Omaha is now attached to the port hardpoints. Entering Slipspace in ten minutes Admiral," replies Sekmet.

The Everest leaves and enters slipspace for the week long journey. It emerges into the hostile system. The Cerberus cruiser on station over the planet tries to make a run for the relay. "Don't let any ships get away," orders Cole. The MAC flashes once and the cruiser is destroyed. "Did it get off any distress calls?"

"No Admiral, the data streams for the planet have also been cut as soon as we entered real space. I only have the residual transmission bursts. Not enough to determine final location but general direction."

Frowning Cole shakes his, "Move us into a low Geo-sync orbit and deploy spy drones. Prep a short suppression strike and get the ODSTs and Red Team in their pods."

The sides of the Everest flash in a series of short burst. The low velocity mass accelerators impact covered air defenses and senor grids rendering the three Cerberus labs open to an orbital assault. Like meteors the ODST dive feet first into battle, their impact throws up a cloud of dust. Disorienting the Cerberus infantry as the cloud of choking superheated dust engulfs them is shortly replaced by a wave of hot lead. The bases were coded named alpha, bravo, and charlie. Each one was hit by a platoon to ODST lead by one of the three spartans. In roughly one minute of shooting the outer defenses were let in ruins. Leaving behind a squad each the UNSC commandos plunge into the enemy bases.

The assault on alpha base had the ODSTs of first platoon stack up behind Douglas, who traded his rocket launcher for a shotgun. After Sekmet hacked the outer door the Spartan rigged the inner door to explode. In everyone's HUD a ten second countdown timer was engaged. 3…2…1… BOOM. The metal door crumples and flies inward at high velocities crushing the unfortunate Cerberus trooper into pulp. Flashbangs are thrown in heartbeats after the door was breached. Overlapping light and pressure waves confuse and disorient the enemy combatants. The Spartan moves through the smoke clogged room like the angel of death, killing all who get close. The ODSTs move in their four man teams with heavy use of grenades and suppressive fire. It takes then less than three minutes to clear the room with a hail of shrapnel, shotgun slugs, and assault rifle rounds. To the harden veterans of the early Human-Covenant War these Cerberus troops don't stand a chance.

With the room secure the tech savvy marines hack into the various consoles. One of the marines drops the barrier containing the strange insectiod alien in the center of the room. Freed and enraged it charges, shooting acid as it advances. By the time its bullet ridden corpse hits the ground one marine is dead and another is severely wounded. No trace of the Admiral is found.

The previous scene was played out again in both Bravo and Charlie bases. The only major snag and discovery came from Charlie bases. The Admiral was found along with two other flood combat forms. After killing the three potential destroyers of the galaxy the admiral's remains were cremated along with the other two flood specimens. In Bravo base more insectiods were found and research notes that pointed to another base on the planet Nepheron in the Columbia system of the Voyager cluster. Before leaving the Everest fired four Shiva missiles into the bases completely sterilizing the area to ensure no flood remain.

A few days later Red Team finds themselves back on board the Omaha Beach. Adm. Cole wants as much intel on Cerberus as possible, so after finding a nice deserted system he transferred Sekmet to Jerome for the operation. The Omaha dropped them off just outside of the bases line of sight and proceeded to carpet bomb the area. On bridge Comdr. Kimbrough commands, "Red Team advance now. Weapons open fire, knock out the guards with the guardian lasers."

Dropping from the night sky like a flacon the Omaha Beach's lethal talons burned all before them. The Spartans strode through the blacked terrain with no issue. Sekmet quickly and covertly hacked the door. The Spartans charge with the fury of a tornado. A series of grenades explode catching those lucky to be in cover with a storm of razor sharp shards of tungsten. Pushing into the cluttered space the Spartans fan out trying to find a data port for Sekmet to transmit any information back to the orbiting Omaha. One of the Cerberus Commandos tried to fight Alice in close quarters, without pausing she grabbed her would be attacker and throw him into the opposite wall some thirty feet away leaving a dent.

When the guns fell silent Sekmet infiltrated their systems and triggered a trap. Leaving it as the files deleted themselves she quickly saved as much as she could. The encryption she notices is very advance, it will take her or another standard smart AI several months to decrypt the files and to avoid any data corruption or hidden virus and worms. The one part she was able to decrypt with the aid of intelligence gathered on the previous planet is that Cerberus was trying to create their version of a super solider, not as advanced as a Spartan but still a human build and modified for war and controllability.

Once the team was back on the Omaha and preparing to enter FTL a strange communication was received. The agent called himself Tazzik and claimed he worked for the Shadow Broker. "The Broker and Kahoku had a deal," started Tazzik once communication was established, "In return for the location of Cerberus Assets the Admiral was going to transfer any files discovered to the Broker as payment."

Comdr. Kimbrough does not even entertain the idea, "Go to hell. You are not getting any of the information that was paid for with Alliance lives."

Tazzik replies, "We will get the information in the end and this will not be forgotten human." He then cuts the link but not before Sekmet places a tracking program in the data stream. It will broadcast a signal when it encounters an Alliance listening post. It will also try to map out any other networks that Tazzik connects to using the inflected communication program.

"Good work people and you to Sekmet, Lets head back to the Everest to brief Admiral Cole and return to Arcturus to report to Admiral Hackett," says Kimbrough over the ships IMC.

In a dark room backlight by a dying star the same man with the cigar and piercing blue eyes reviews the loss and security risks posed by the Alliances recent operation. "Kia Leng you are to go to Project Sites 37A, 78V, and 02T I want a full torch and burn. No surviving witnesses or data."

A young Asian man steps from the shadows though dressed well his cybernetic upgrades are easy to spot. Drawing his katana from his back, he inspects the blade as it gleans in the low light. "With pleasure," comes the reply from a smirking mouth. Casting a suggestive look at the other operative as she steps forward.

"I will initiate a general security review to find out how the Shadow Broker got access to those base locations. I will also be heading up Project Ascension so we are better prepared for the next Alliance raid," says the gorgeous raven haired women as she to steps into the dim light.

Swirling the whiskey in his glass the man takes another drag, "Any problems that you discover Miranda you will forward to Leng so he can fix them. Understand?"

Nodding and in a supremely cocky voice she replies, "Yes Illusive Man. Do you doubt my abilities?" that was said more as a challenge than a question.

"Not at all I just want to remind you what is as stake, Humanity and its role in the galaxy." Comes the polite reply.

Leng with that same smirk and lecherous gleam, "I am looking forward to fixing your problems babe. Just keep them coming."

Before Miranda can reply the Illusive Man stops them, "Enough, You both have your orders."


	7. The Familiar in Unfamilar Places part 2

The next update will take awhile due to it being exam week. Enjoy Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Attican Beta**

**Theseus System**

**Feros**

**2589**

Flying past several spires in the upper atmosphere, the Normandy heads to the cloud wreath colony of Zhu's Hope. What is strange and has everyone on edge is that this colony has not returned any hails and all communications are dark. Ashley remarks about this is similar to Eden Prime. No one on broad has any illusion about the Normandy's chances against the Geth flagship at over 2 kilometers it can obliterate the Normandy without even trying. Underneath the main cloud layer they find a docking bay and prepare to land. Shepard wants Garrus, Tali, and Wrex to join him on this mission. Each one is the team's best at their respective skills, long-range combat, combat in general, and tech.

The ancient being in the depths of Zhu's Hope stirs once more and begins its plan for domination. Landing the team encounters no one in the docking bay. Heading closer to the colony they meet David al Talaqani who informed them that the geth and a large number of krogan have invaded the colony jamming all communications. Before more information can be gather David is killed by a rocket. The team spreads out, Wrex and Shepard engages their barriers and charges the geth while Garrus opens fire with his sniper providing suppressive fire for Tali as she hacks and distracts the Geth's targeting sensors. Wrex and Shepard move down the covered debris choked hallway shotgun blazing as they cut through the geth fire team attacking the colony. Fighting pass the docking bay they reach stairwell that has a single hopper jumping around jamming their radar and taking potshots. Wrex, Shepard, and Tali open fire with their shotguns and the hopper crashed to the floor dead.

They enter the colony or what's left of it, a few buildings and vehicles and a couple dozen colonists. Looking for Fai Dan who is the leader Shepard is introduced to a middle-aged Asian man, he thanks Shepard for the timely arrival but is cut short as more geth and krogan charge. Heading for the tower the stairs are death traps as round after round is fired downward. "Wrex you charge up there with your biotics and take the pressure off of us. I will be right behind you. Garrus, Take out the hoppers than the rocket troops one by one. Tali follow me and keep close I need your tech skills to disable their shields and weapons," orders Shepard. The team moves to follow as Wrex launches himself straight at the enemy with a biotic charge killing several geth and is now in pitch combat with a few krogan. Shepard using his biotics increases his shields and heads right up the stairs shotgun blazing at any target that Garrus or Tali has weaken. In a few chaotic seconds the stairs are clear.

Pushing through the tower it takes ten more minutes to locate and deal with reaming geth forces. What was strange about this fight is that the number of krogan have increased. Wrex mentioned something about how their all adolescents. Paying it little attention the Team heads down the tower to clear out the lower levels. They find more geth and a pair of krogan guarding a signal jammer which they destroy after dealing with the guards. Wrex confronts Shepard, "All these krogan are adolescents. Do you know what this means Shepard?" Shepard shakes his head not having a clue. Wrex sighs, "The genophage makes breeding damn near impossible. Thousands are still-born. Imagine the odds, all the krogan so far have been young ones. That is wrong, Shepard it shouldn't be possible. Saren is up to something involving my species, something big."

They also find a few strange creatures, small green balls with tentacles that charge them. They die easy enough, one burst of fire kills dozens. With that dealt with the group heads back up to the colony. With the transmitter destroyed Shepard gets a message from Joker, "Commander a geth fleet has arrived. I am telling Adm. Hackett to send help, anything else you want to include?"

"Yeah Joker," replies Shepard as he uploads the scans of the strange creature to the Normandy. "Got them Commander, replies Joker, "Anything else?"

"Just to be on the safe side Joker seal the ship and have Kaidan prep the rest of the team to repel any boarders," replies Shepard.

To clear the geth off the planet the team moves to the garage and heads to the ExoGeni headquarters. Using the Mako the drive along the skyway is quick all points of resistance overwhelmed. Half way to the headquarters the Mako begins to pick up radio chatter and the team stops to investigate with Garrus staying on the Mako's cannon to provide overwatch. Meeting up with several refugees from ExoGeni one Juliana Baynham who is concerned for her daughter and fills Shepard in about the attack. She hints at something else, something buried in the colony but before she can elaborate her boss Ethan Jeong cuts her off. With all the information gather the team keeps going.

As more geth die before the onslaught of the Mako the entrance looms up ahead. Entering the garage the radar is jammed as the geth pour in, Garrus eviscerated them with the Mako's main gun and the coaxial machine gun. Pushing past the debris the team moves up the ramp and out of the garage. The next room has two doors and a large hole in the floor. While most of the group inspects the door covered by the energy shield Garrus sneaks into the other room and quickly comes out saying that you don't want to wake up an armature. The hole it is as Shepard jumps down followed by the rest of the team. Continuing deeper into the underground, someone takes a few shots at Shepard but his shields stop the rounds cold. On the other side of the still shaking handgun is Lizbeth Baynham. She fills Shepard in about why the geth are here, for a creature that ExoGeni labeled the Thorian. Other than that she can't tell you much but gives you her id and access card. With the information gained you tell her to go hide as the team moves into the heart of the headquarters.

Heading up stairs the team hears a krogan trying to get information out of a VI but lacks the necessary access code. Rushing up behind him, Tali overloads his shields, Garrus disables his weapon, and Wrex knocks him cold. Dragging him off for interrogation, Wrex leaves the rest of the team to gather what they can about the Thorian. The VI was helpful, the Thorian has existed for hundreds of thousands of years and has the ability to consume sentient life and gains the knowledge of whatever it consumes. Waking, the krogan groans at the sight of Wrex and after a little encouragement tells Wrex that Saren has cured the genophage and will restore those who follow him. The krogan also commands Wrex to betray Shepard, shaking his head at this Wrex shoots the krogan in the face. With a shotgun. Killing him and making a mess in the process.

Moving through the headquarters they come to the attachment claws of the geth frigate, hacking the landing bay doors however cut the claws causing the frigate to fall to its explosive death. Fighting their way down to the garage they are all relived when they enter the Mako. Everyone's armor is scorched and blackened. Medigel is applied to everyone. Resting for a few minutes the team is lucky to survive. Wrex breaks the silence, "I signed up for good fights and that was almost too good of a fight. I want to enjoy the bragging rights about killing an army not be the stupid fool who gets killed by the army." Heading back to the colony Joker tells you that something bad has happened to it.

Reentering the garage of Zhu's Hope there are more of those little pods they saw in the tunnels, a lot more. They watch as the horde swarms over the colonists devouring them. "Fall back until we know what's going on," yells Shepard. Sealing the garage the team moves back to Jeong position.

Angry, Shepard demands information. Jeong begrudgingly coughs it up. "It is called the Thorian or at least that we found the Protheans calling it," he begins, "It predates the Protheans and has the ability to convert living tissue into another form. It controls the converted beings with some form of telepathy, it is essentially a hive-mind. The spores however can modify and control behavior and ExoGeni wanted to develop a new type of behavior mutagen for all kinds of application. We just needed more samples, so the company created the colony."

Shepard in a cold voice, "How do we kill it?"

Jeong shakes his head, "I have no clue but it is vulnerable to fire and we developed a nerve gas that can weaken its different forms."

Taking the nerve gas grenades Shepard sends all this information to Adm. Hackett's approaching battle group. "You won't get away with this Jeong. As a Spector I can kill you right now but will we let the Alliance do that along with suing ExoGeni for a long list of broken laws and morals." Looking at his team Shepard says, "We still have to find out why Saren wanted it. Let's go." Going back to the Mako the team is nervous but ready to face these walking nightmares.

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Arcturus Station**

**Arcturus System**

Admirals Hackett and Cole along with Capt. Cutter are reviewing the mission reports sent from the Normandy on Feros. Hackett and Cole have no clue what they are dealing with but Cutter does. "Serina," says Cutter, "Bring up everything we got on the Flood from the shield world.

"Right away Capt.," replies Serina. On the main screen the general overview is given as more and more data is transferred the picture becomes clearer. The Flood on Feros survived for the past 100,000 years. If able to get off world it can destroy the whole galaxy. The most dangerous level the flood can create is a Gravemind, a Flood form with the brain capacity of several super computers that contains the genetic memory of every species it consumed as well as any Gravemind.

Once three officers where finished reading the file Cutter begins, "Sirs I know you don't want to hear but that planet must be glassed. If the Flood escape, this galaxy is lost. I have fought them, I know what they are capable of. They are millions if not trillions times worse than the Covenant."

Hackett looking somber nods in agreement, "The Citadel Council will want to know why we did it. We need a plausible cover story. Also Alliance ships will do this I don't want anyone seeing what your ships are capable of."

The two former UNSC officers agree and then Adm. Cole starts, "Tell the Council that a plague that ExoGeni was working on curing escaped. Before a cure was able to be found it escaped containment and we can't risk further infection. ExoGeni will be punished accordingly and we have averted a galactic wide health crisis."

Hackett thinks it over, "Perfect with just enough of the truth to make it believable."

Hitting the comm, Hackett orders the K2, Logan, Kilimanjaro, Tai Shan, and forty cruisers loaded with Shiva nuclear weapons in a ground attack package. He wants it done within four hours then he wants those ships to jump to Feros to begin Scorched Earth operations. Also send a message to Shepard if he isn't off that planet when the fleet arrives then he and his crew will be blasted into their composite atoms. With the military side complete Hackett now has to do the harder thing and talk to Udina.

Udina sitting at his desk is glad that Shepard has not done anything stupid in the past three weeks. The only things he has to deal with are routine treaties and trade deals, a welcome break to the tongue lashings the Council enjoys giving out. Speaking about the Council they were oddly compliant about allowing humanity to build two new dreadnoughts. Well, Udina thinks, really just one new dreadnought and the recovered Everest. He can't wait to shove that ship down Sparatus's throat. His easy day is about to get interrupted when he receives a priority message from Adm. Hackett. "Yes Admiral," starts Udina, "What do want me to talk to the Council about this time."

In the space of a few minutes Hackett outline the situation and tells Udina that the fleet is going to annihilate Feros in twenty-four hours. "I want you to tell the Council in exactly twenty hours. This way they know a head a time but can't intervene. Until then you are unavailable for anything. Understand. Hackett out"

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Zhu's Hope**

**Feros**

Going back to the colony was the hardest period of combat any of the team has ever experienced because the size of the Flood horde has grown. The Mako was used to clear the garage. Fighting yard by yard nerve-gas grenades were used liberally along with incendiary grenades and bullets. Joker clicks on the comm, "Shepard, Adm. Hackett is giving you less than two hours before the fleet wipes out the planet. Apparently the Spirit of Fire has encountered these things before and it did not go so well. Remember less than two hours till we get blasted to dust." On the outskirts of the colony new forms attacked. They looked like a person if a person had died and you dug them up after a few weeks. They also sport three nasty looking whip-like claws on the left hand. Thankfully fire rounds cut through them with ease. Seeing a goo covered console Shepard has Tali hack it while the rest of them provided cover. The Flood come in waves every two minutes as Tali struggles with the encryption codes. By the fifth wave she got it open and the horde stopped.

Running the stairs the team doesn't know how this can get any worse. Garrus breathing heavy notes the air has become thicker, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Wrex scoffs, "At least there isn't a Thresher Maul to deal with. I killed one once, it was fun but I don't want to do it again so soon."

The fog moves and a massive creature emerges, "Greetings Reclaimer, This is not your grave but you are welcome to it."

Wrex shakes his head, "That is bigger than any Thresher Maul I have ever seen." Garrus mumbles something about his big mouth.

The creature speaks again, "I am a monument to all your sins. I am Gravemind. You seek what the other one desired. The Cipher was given in trade but I have a deal for you reclaimer. Should you take it?"

Shepard stepping toward the Gravemind, "What is the Cipher? And who else did you give it to?"

The Gravemind shifts is massive head, "Saren, he wanted information and gave information for it. The Cipher is the genetic memory of the Protheans. Saren needs it to find the Conduit. He believes that he will be safe. No one will be safe for the galaxy is balanced on the edge soon all life will be at risk. Soon there will be silence and then all will be joined."

Shepard replies, "I need the Cipher so what is your deal?"

The Gravemind says, "If they will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning" reaching out with a single tentacle it transfers the knowledge to Shepard's mind, the entire genetic memory of the Protheans. As Shepard collapses the team grabs him and runs back to the Normandy. The Gravemind yells in their minds, "Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside; corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide!"

Garrus tells Joker to get us into orbit fast. As the Normandy pulls away from the dock Udina is standing before the Council. "Shepard has uncovered that ExoGeni has engaged in illegal research into creating a plague that causes severe behavioral changes. It makes people increasingly paranoid and very homicidal, they act with an uncontrollable killer impulse. It spreads quickly and there is no cure or vaccination for it. The plague escaped containment and made the colonist attack each other within in hours. Saren apparently wanted to weaponize this pathogen but was unable to secure a sample. Right now elements of the Fifth Fleet under Adm. Hackett are going to sterilize the planet. ExoGeni will be punished by the Alliance and once we are finished the Citadel is more than welcome to punish what is left of the company. In four hours the planet will be render inhospitable by bombardment. We regret this incident and will review our oversight laws to ensure this won't happen again."

The Council is shocked at Humanities candor. Tavos speaks before Sparatus has the chance to say something stupid, "We will be investigating ExoGeni as well. Humanity has both our thanks for averting a galactic incident and our ire as a result you must pay a substantial fine for allowing this to happen. New trade sanctions will be emplace until we deem necessary. Also all human corporations must submit to an audit by the STG and the Citadel. Any found violating any law will be fined accordingly. ExoGeni must cease all operations immediately and turn their operations over to the Council for review. This business is concluded Ambassador."

"Well," Udina thinks, "That could have gone much worse." He wonders if Shepard is still alive. Despite the amount of problems he causes he still is humanities first Spector and he gets the job done. As the Council meeting concludes the Normandy breaks into orbit and is greeted by a grim Adm. Hackett. Moving the frigate out of the way the crew watches as the ships rain fire on the planet. It takes a day to ensure total destruction of the Flood. With that crisis avoided the Normandy has no new assignment as they wait for Saren to make another mistake.

In the meantime Shepard and the crew are keeping busy, taking out merc and pirate bases that have been harassing the Citadel races. Also several recon mission concerning geth activity that have come up empty. Most importantly though is the melding sessions with Liara. Shepard's vision is becoming clearer and clearer. Chunks of it are still missing but he is now seeing the Protheans fighting back and that the beacons are a warning to those that follow.

Adm. Hackett wants the Normandy to hit a major pirate hub near a cluster of dormant and active relays in the Hades Gamma Cluster. The base, similar in size to the on Torfan, is a major hub for every pirate and slaver group in the whole sector and they might have information on why there has been a spike of young krogan spotted during the Normandy's two mission and spotted with the geth attacks.


	8. The Expansion Begins

Time frame for next update: At least a week and half possibly two weeks because of exams and swimming. Enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Orion Arm**

**Shanxi Cluster**

**2589**

"Two months in slipspace. Two months spent running away from the nearest battle zone," Thinks Radm. Tornabene. As his battle group reverts back to reality amid a lighting storm in space, he calls together all the Commanders, Captains, Shipmasters, Shipmistress, and the Fleetmaster to the Whitcomb for a last-minute conference. One of the downsides of having such a large ship is that it takes forever to get anywhere. Mendicant did offer the use of slipspace portals instead of the tram routes but no one wants to disappear into another dimension on the way to the mess deck. It takes ten minutes for the Rear Admiral to reach the main conference room, his XO Rha Vadum is already waiting along with Blue Team and the file of Spec-Ops sangheili that make up my personal guard.

Having time before the rest of the fleets officer arrive Tornabene ask, "I want general opinions people, about this mission. Given that the border regions are heating up, do you think HighCom should be wasting precious resources like a Cole class super carrier instead of a Valiant or Marathon strike group? Pacing Tornabene heads over to the table and gets a cup of coffee from his special pot The head of engineering and his boys make the best coffee on the ship and the standing orders on-board ship are make sure that the admiral always has a pot of black gang coffee hot and ready. The only people allowed to indulge is the admiral, the XO, the third officer. Woe to anyone else who tries to take a heavenly cup, scuttlebutt has that one of the Ultras guards the coffee in active camo. No one has mustered up the courage to find out if that particular rumor is true.

The Spartans are standing in silence shifting slowly, to the uninformed they may seem like statues or robots, but the three non-spartans they know that they are discussing the question privately before answering. The Shipmistress however does not stay quiet for long, "Fleetmaster, As much as I want to lead my brothers and sisters alongside you reclaimers against the heretics. This task was given to us by an oracle from the gods. We would be remiss if we did commit a large and powerful force to finding our path. This journey is only for the worthy and the worthy must be strong. Besides we have the chance to win much honor and glory something our ancestors demand." The sangheili ultras on the room's perimeter nod in agreement.

Seeing this the Admiral turns the leader of the sangheili, Usze 'Taham, "What do you think," questions the Admiral.

The Ultra places his hand over his heart and cocks his before replying. "The Shipmistress is correct Fleetmaster, he begins, "The gods have sent us, not another ship or other warriors, but us. They deem us worth to fight in their name and we must disgrace ourselves before the gods. I am looking forward to this challenge, for any foe to stand before the chosen sword of reclamation must be mighty or foolish. Either way they will be tested by your skill, bested by our might, given no mercy by our weapons." When he finished his speech about his willingness to be challenged the other ultras place a close fist over their hearts. They start to slowly pound their chest. They start to pray in sangheili and once that was finished they started again in English.

They are chanting the Oath of Reclamation and Atonement, "On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons! We tore the Covenant asunder! Our past stained with the dishonor. The countless dead lay restlessly at our feet. Lost, ready for deaths absolving embrace. The darkness called, hope was lost. Forgiveness though undeserved was given! Forward, warriors, and fear not pain or death. We continued our march to glorious salvation! Humans and Sangheili. Will you not come with us, brother? The Journey to the Mantel has begun. It demands great courage. So we may regain our honor and bask in the glory of the heavens."

The chanting end as the rest of the UNSC senior officer enter, saluting the rear admiral they quickly take their seats and review mission data and their own ship's status. A few minutes later the heavy footfalls of several Imperium warriors are. Three Shipmasters, their Helios guards, and the Fleetmaster enters. Bowing to the rear-admiral he nods at the rest of the humans. The sangheili already present render their honors with Rha doing so begrudgingly. Taking his seat the meeting begins. "Taylor pull up the start charts of this cluster." Orders Tornabene from the head of the table. The various systems are projected onto the surface of the table. The three central systems are labeled; Shanxi in the middle, Nihlus on the left, and Kryik on the right. The weird thing about them is they are all equidistant from each other and arranged in a triangle.

Continuing, "I want the battlegroup to mark off systems one day, three, days, and one week away from the central three systems and survey them. You are also directed to set up slipspace monitoring probes at these locations. I don't want any Storm, Remnant, or Innie finding us without fair warning. If we do find any of our disagreeable friends you are weapons free at your discretion however nose cold on NOVA bombs I want planets and systems to search not debris fields. Also the other reason why these ships were selected is that they all have advanced stealth systems and optical cloaks. The surveying the ships will cloaked the entire time. Consider this a standing order until told otherwise. Each system will be given forty hours until moving on to the next system. Any delay must be reported to either the Shadow of Intent or the Whitcomb. You have your orders. Dismissed." With the briefing concluded the senior officer's head back to their respective ships. "Fleetmaster may I have a quick word," adds Tornabene. Waiting till they were both alone Tornabene begins, "The arrangement you have with my ships XO is not going to be a problem is it?"

Fleetmaster Indo Vadam cocks his head to the side. Most sangheili do this if the topic is unexpected or in this case humorous. His mandibles flex into the sangheili equivalent of a smile before laughing, "Not at all Supreme Commander. Yes we are betroth. Yes she joined your command to get away from my irresistible charm. She however is just jealous that I have become a Fleetmaster before her. I am sure she told you about our rivalry yes?" Seeing Tornabene nod yes Indo continues, "We both started training at the same time, each task we traded first place as our natural abilities developed. The first major blow was when she won her blade before me. I must say much to detriment of my pride that you will hard pressed to find a better swordsman than her. I however am a better leader. She got a file to command, I would receive a lance and so on and so forth. I reach Zealot first than she countered by commanding a CVP destroyer. I then got command of a CCS-class cruiser and she only received a CRS cruiser and worse yet she was put under my command. When she got the Unflinching Resolve, from me I might add, she went and broke it over Sigma Octanus IV. I however was promoted and given the command of the Task Group Herald of Damnation along with the Shadow of Intent, her father's command. She did not speak to me for a year. We are close friends and fine warriors Supreme Commander have no fear our petty squabbles pale in comparison to the task ahead." His fears dispelled he thanks the Fleetmaster and wishes him good hunting.

Arriving in the Nihlus system the Whitcomb engages its cloak and begins searching for the energy signature that Mendicant gave the UNSC. The Whitcomb however is not alone in this search, though MI has made progress there are still monsters that hide in the shadows.

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Attican Traverse**

**Hades Gamma Cluster**

**Chasing Batarian Pirates**

**2589**

"Don't let them get away Joker," yells Shepard.

"I know, I know, it's not like I want them to get away Commander," Joker replies over the comm as he throws the Normandy through several high g turns as the hull groans in protest.

In the raised section of the CIC Shepard gripping the railing tight hits the comm link to fire control, "Garrus can you disable that ship with the main cannon?"

In the depths of the frigate, Garrus strapped into the gunnery controls replies tersely, "No problem, I need Joker to give me three seconds of level flying to line up the shot. Dodging a brace of disruptor torpedoes, Joker pulls a split S and then throws the Frigate into an Immelmann to get a clear line of fire on the fleeing Batarian. Leveling out in a shallow dive Garrus takes the shot as the Batarian flees into the mass relays approach corridor.

As the relay activates and spreads its mass altering tendrils out. The Batarians increases speed hoping to out run the rapidly approaching Normandy. Before Garrus can fire again the frigate reached the relay jump point just as the first mass accelerator rounds hits an engine. It explodes and shakes the ship wildly but it does not halt the relay jump. In a flash of blue they are gone. In a flash of orange the Normandy explodes as the drive and hull damaged earlier succumbs to the stress of battle. A section of the outer hull sheared off. All power goes out, lights flicker as back generators come to life. "Dam," yells Shepard as he punches the bulkhead. Hitting the comm to Adams in engineering he orders, "Get the ship back online as soon as possible." Switching to Joker's channel Shepard continues, "I want to run these bastards down. Now they went and fled through a previously inactive relay, something else I can kill them for, once we get Tali back."

On the barbarian frigate the crew is thankful to escape with their lives but now they wish to remain this way to enjoy the reward of delivering the quarian to Saren. Apparently she got on his shit list and now he wants deal with her personally. The ship shakes as secondary explosions continue were they had an engine pod. The engineering officer cuts power and air to the section and reroutes it, ending the fire and a dozen lives of those trapped. The captain paces the bridge angrier than a blood enrage krogan he growls to no one in particular, "Saren better pay extra for all the trouble we want through to get this quarian. We need to get out of here. Are there any large system nearby?" the captain Solem Dal'serah ask his navigator.

The young Batarian replies, "Scans have detected a major system about two hours. Even with the damage sustained we should be able to make without further risk."

Nodding Dal'serah says, "Plot a course. Alert me when we are close to the system edge."

**48 hours Prior**

**Hades Gamma Cluster**

Gathering the team in the team in comm room Shepard starts his briefing, "Just want to start with a good job done so far. Saren has yet to show himself so we are out of leads. Feros was hell and I am glad no one is hung up over it. Now on to business, the mercenary, pirate, and slaver bands in this sector have become more active with large amounts of krogan present. While this would not be so out of the ordinary, the thing is that the Blood Pack are nowhere near this region of space. The Council wants us to hit the base and crack their computers to find out routes and attack plans so the Turian and Alliance naval forces can actively interdict them and try to find out where so many krogan have come from. So I will need Tali, Wrex and Garrus to ready up and meet me in the hangar bay. Dismissed."

The Normandy gilded into the planet's atmosphere like a ghost. Its stealth systems fully active the mercenaries don't have a clue that they are going to be hit by an elite Spectre team. As Joker makes his way to the infiltration site he flies by a passing slaver patrol. A piece of bad luck. This bad luck however gives the mercenaries two hours to prepare for the incoming assault. Dropping off Shepard and the rest of his team, Joker then flew off to wait for the gun fire laced radio call so He can come and save the day.

No Mako for this operation, it would be too loud and hard to hide. The team is moving in on foot, slowly walking through the tough rocky terrain. The height of the hills makes even Wrex grumble also the planet being a higher gravity world doesn't improve the four kilometer hike. It takes the team an additional three hours to get into strike range. Garrus peering through he scope of his newly acquired Widow feeds the team intel, "There are a lot more of them outside the base. I estimate at least a platoon plus an old ass Batarian IFV Commander. Next time you want a sniper for a pirate raid take Ashley." Shaking his head Shepard looks with his own optics and sees that Garrus is right.

Calling the Normandy he has Kaidan and Ashely run out the Mako to draw their fire. Fifteen minutes later a single heavy round rings out and the pirate IFV explodes as Garrus nailed its power core. Distracted by the dying tank the mercs unprepared for the thunder run of the Mako. Doing three high-speed drive byes Ashley shredded most of the pirates outside. Those left standing had to deal with a Krogan Battlemaster who just bioticly charged into the middle of the survivors, reducing one unlucky S.O.B. to a bloody pulp on impact showering the others with blood. His shotgun barks as Tali and Shepard move up with Garrus eliminating any remaining snipers. After five minutes of chaotic hell the outside grows quiet except for the smoldering tank. They regroup in front of the airlock. Pulling security they wait for Tali to hack the door, it takes twenty seconds.

Entering the team splits into groups, Wrex and Tali on side and Shepard and Garrus on the other. The VI informs that it takes five minutes to pressurize and decontaminate before the airlock will cycle them through. Standing uncomfortably the waiting sucks as nerves tighten. Garrus switches to an assault rifle, his preferred weapon is a Thunder. "Once the door opens I want everyone to throw a grenade in hard, count to three and move to the first available cover point," orders Shepard. The VI counts down from five and the door clicks and hisses open. Four grenades are thrown and cause a zone of cover and death as the team moves in weapons flashing fire and fury. The slavers guarding the door were cut down before they had chance to put up fight.

Right after the entry succeeded Shepard and the team quickly surveyed the building, about the size of a football field it had numerous crates stack creating fire lanes and cover points in front of a large mess area. The upstairs area consisted of two balconies that overlook the right and left sides of the building with three bridges connecting them. The mercenaries recovering from their early shock opened fire. A lot of fire. The team was pinned as a tidal wave of bullets and rockets was poured forth. The only targets that Shepard and the rest of the squad were able to engage were the enemies on the catwalks and upper levels. Once they were killed the fire slackened greatly. "Garrus give me a mass overload, Tali use sabotage right after, Wrex barriers up were going to charge," shouts Shepard. The Omi-tools flash orange as the mercs wonder why their guns stopped working were left vulnerable to a krogan battering ram and N7 Vanguard pushing through their ranks. It work well until a dozen krogan counter-charged stopping the advance cold.

Garrus seeing the threat yells to Tali, "I need you to cover while I find a good spot and set up." Tali nods and sends her combat drone out to harass the mercs trying to flank them. Garrus finding a good crate bunkers down while sighting his widow on the nearest krogan, the nearest krogan about to kill Shepard anyway. Relaxing his heart and calming his breathing Garrus hits the assassination mode on the rifle and fires. The heavy round leaps from the barrel the report defining and booming over the fire fight. The krogan's head exploded as the high velocity armor-piercing high explosive round entered the krogan. Leaving the krogan' head the round continued and impacted the turian behind the intended target. Both went down in a spray of blood and brains.

The fight devolves into a close quarters brawl. Grenades are thrown around corners, necks are snapped in desperate hand to hand fights, and bullets rip through flesh and armor. The team did get to witness the finer aspects of the krogan's blood rage as Wrex succumbs to it and tore a dozen targets including one krogan limb from limb with his bare hands, also he shrugged off a dozen explosive rounds and an assault rifle burst to the gut. The mercs though more numerous did not have the skill to do much but prolong their inevitable demise and die in a suitably messy manner. The fighting stops as the last krogan drops dead with half of its body destroyed. "Well that was easy," remarked Garrus as he wipes some blood form his mouth.

"Yeah," agrees Wrex, "We did the galaxy a twofold service, got rid of a bunch of weak slavers and mercs as well as removed a group of idiots from the gene pool. Still all that matters is the fight and they did fair." Shaking his head Shepard begins to search their bodies looking for anything useful. The rest of the squad does the same after applying medigel to themselves.

"Tali you and Garrus head upstairs and crack into their armory, bank accounts, and computer records. We need to find the intelligence the Council wants. Wrex feel free to pick over any corpse on this floor and maintain security," orders Shepard. Walking over to a black armored turian he takes a look at the shotgun the body has. Finding it better model quickly swaps it out and reinstalls all of his weapon mods to his new toy, the Hydra V. All is going well with the cleanup phase of the operation until all hell breaks loose.

As the team was fighting against the slavers and mercs in the building a large portion of their company was stalking the Normandy. Joker set her down in a box canyon with only one way in and out. The Mercs knowing the terrain better than the crew of the Normandy moved up several small paths and trials to get above the Alliance frigate. The Normandy was powered down to reduce the wear and tear on the IES systems but is also more vulnerable to the heavy weapons that the mercs brought with them. Opening fire with several auto cannons and heavy rocket launchers, chunks of armor are blown off the Normandy. Though wounded it is not even close to being out of the fight. Barriers quickly turn on shrugging off the next barrage. Joker opens fire with the guardian lasers flash frying the attacking mercs.

Climbing into the sky he detects four enemy frigates on an intercept course and immediately climbs higher in order to gain the altitude advantage. Once he is at least seventy thousand feet up, Joker spins the ship and charges. The enemy frigates and the Normandy open fire at the same time. Railgun rounds impact shields with flashes of orange fire as blue white torpedoes are destroyed by red colored laser beams. The fight transforms into a swirling melee of missile exhaust and vapor trails. Joker catches one frigate in a high yo-yo and cuts it in half with a torpedo to the underside. Seeing his partner turned to atoms another frigate runs. For this act of cowardice and ease of shot all three open fire and transform the once sleek vessel into a twisted flame warped hulk.


	9. The New collides with the Old

11

**Chapter 9**

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Hades Gamma Cluster**

Even though the Normandy is on the best ships ever built, quantity has its own quality. The two remaining frigates force the damaged Normandy out of the fight. With Joker having disengaged or risk getting hit by a salvo of torpedoes, the two merc ships one turian and the other batarian head at full speed to the merc base. As Shepard and his team continue to go through the base heavy fire suddenly slams into the building. The roof is destroyed opening the interior to the thin atmosphere a gust of wind rips any loosely secured stuff airborne. Before the dust and debris form the first salvo settles another one lances into the weakened structure causing greater damage.

Shepard is hit by a piece of roof, only his biotic barriers saved his life. Garrus trying to get off the catwalk is thrown into the far wall and slumps to the ground, with broken ribs. Wrex is struggling to free himself from the avalanche of concrete and steel. Tali runs out of the computer room and sees the devastation. The sun is blocked briefly by a pair of frigates. Cargo bay doors open and dozens of black armored turians and batarians dive from the ship. While descending they throw several flashbang and concussion grenades. Garrus just starting to recover is knocked unconscious as the heavy fast moving pressure waves overlap and crash into their weaken bodies. Shepard and Wrex are stunned long enough for the Mercs to hit the ground and spread out. Tali's suit managed to deflect and insulate her from the worst of the effects. The Turians stay on the ground floor blocking the stairs as the Batarians rush toward Tali. Shepard still pinned manage to throw a single grenade that killed a few of the mercs and caused the rest to seek cover. The Batarians not caring about the turians dying below them continue to charge, right into a carnage round that kills the first two mercs. Tali was only able to fire once before being overwhelmed and subdued. Seeing this Wrex lets out a roar and throws the tons of debris holding him in all directions. Not wanting to fight the blood enraged Krogan the Batarians signal for pick up as the Turians draw the fury of the Warlord.

The Batarian frigate swoops down and hovers by their soldiers as they quickly rush on-board. Looking over his shoulder the young batarian private watches Wrex tear the Turians limb from limb in a shower of screams and gore. The frigate moves from its holding spot quickly as the Normandy reengages with a vengeance killing the Turian frigate and damaging the nearby batarians. Stopping quickly the rest of the Normandy's marines rush out and grab Shepard, Garrus, and a now calmed Wrex. Joker has the ship climbing and accelerating even before the hangar door is closed.

Garrus grabbing some medigel to ease the pain of ribs stumbles with assistance to the main battery. Collapsing into the chair he takes over from the Alliance crewman. Shepard limps up the stairs to the bridge and shouts to Joker, "Pursuit them. They have Tali don't let them make to the relay." The rest of the crew braces as Joker pushes the battle-damaged frame to its limit.

The two ships trade weapons fire as they run toward the systems edge. Shield flash and hulls shutter as heavy rounds slam into the weaken defenses. No ship is disable before the jump point. In a massive release in energy both ships enter FTL with the Normandy shaking violently. "Commander, the Normandy cannot sustain much more damage and remain combat effective," says XO Presley after reading a report from engineering. "We are over stressing the drive core, Adams says it may explode."

"As long as we first disable those bastards that have Tali we can worry about the ship later," shouts Shepard.

Exiting FTL the Batarian is in the lead and has already sent the activation signal to the systems dormant relay. As Relay's gyro scope spins faster and faster indicating it is fully charged the Batarian enters the approach corridor just as Joker levels the Normandy out into a shallow dive. Garrus fires the main gun as blue-white tendrils reach out into space. Grabbing the fleeing pirate just has the mass accelerator round slams into its engine. On fire and exploding the ship jumps.

The Normandy tries to follow by the drive core overloads and power relays on the weaken section can't handle the strain and explode. The fireball and explosion tears a chunk out of the outer hull. All system except emergency life support go dark. The Normandy is drifting dead in space. Shepard still weak from the planet is knocked unconscious by a piece of flying metal. XO Presley and Engineer Adams has the repair teams' work around the clock to get the Normandy back to fighting condition. It takes about half a day to fix the outer hull and the rest of the time was spent replacing and testing the power relays. Garrus and Shepard spent this time in the medical bay getting patched up by Doc. Chakwas.

The next morning XO Presley is standing before Shepard, "We were luckily sir, no causalities and the injuries were light. The blast did not penetrate the inner pressure hull. It took a day but were are ready to proceed through the relay Commander."

"Tell the crew good job XO. Have Joker plot a course I will be on the bridge as soon as I am able."

"Yes sir." As Presley turns, salutes, and walks out of the med bay.

**Next day**

**Orion Arm**

**Nihlus System**

**2589**

Exiting FTL the batarian frigate Peerless Misery moves in system. Leaking air, fuel, and radiation it flares on the sensor screen of the cloaked Whitcomb. "A garden world and an asteroid belt perfect," says Capt. Dal'serah, "Move us into scanning range and see what metals are present to repair the ship."

"Yes sir," comes the reply from his XO.

Moving in slowly not to stress the already weaken frame of the small hundred and fifty meter frigate. Despite its small size compared to the cloak giant bearing down upon it has caused a significant amount of confusion. "What the hell is that and what is it doing in the middle of nowhere?" asks Radm. Tornabene to one in particular as he sits in the command chair gripping his cup of coffee. I have been on watch for just ten minutes and all hell breaks loose but at least this mission just became more interesting and dangerous thinks the admiral.

"Sir preliminary scans complete. Profile and power signatures are not in the system. The energy leaking from that ship is similar to the signature given to use by Mendicant Bias," reports Taylor. "Also there are several different species on that ship, three unknown aliens and one human."

"What a human?" asks Tornabene, "This has just got a lot more interesting. Rha prep your assault team and get Blue Team ready as well. I want to know why there is a human on that ship but first let's find out about them, also have all this data sent to HighCom, and gather the fleet.

As the Peerless Misery begins scanning Dal'serah tells his XO, "You are to oversee the repairs to the ship and do not bother me unless absolutely necessary." Leaving the bridge he punches his command code to open his cabin and enters. As the door hisses closed the faint screams and whimpers of an Asari and human women can be heard in the corridor along with the shouts of Dal'serah. Shaking his head the XO begins to gather a list of the all the necessary resources that the engineers gave him and hopes that they can find them in this system.

**Normandy **

**Scutum–Centaurus Arm**

**Three Days behind the Batarians**

"All ready to jump Commander," says Joker from the helm, "I notified Adm. Hackett about the now active relay and he is sending the Fifth Fleet and a new battlegroup called India to secure the system and the paired one." With the transmission ended the Normandy jumps. The relay flashes blue-white and it sends them across the galaxy

**Orion Arm**

**Nihlus System**

**2589**

"Musashi," says Tornabene watching the unknown ship glide closer to the planet.

The second AI holopad activates and this AI that has taken the likeness of Miyamoto Musashi forms. Bowing the AI asks, "What do you wish of me my lord?"

"I want you to do a covert hack of that unknown's systems. A full sweep, process the data, and forward a report to Taylor, Rha, and myself.

Drawing his two blades the AI says, "At once my lord they will fall before my onslaught."

"Sir," I have a message from HighCom, "_Full scale war has broken out between the Mantle's Protectorate, Storm, Remnant, and ONI/Innie forces. You are to maintain mission. In event of encountering anything, as hinted by Mendicant Bias, in the course of your mission Radm. Tornabene you are authorized to wear the insignia and wield the authority of an Admiral of the UNSC._

"Thank you Taylor. Let's continue to observe these xenos until Musashi gets the data and I figure out the best way to contact them."

Several hours later Musashi reappears, "This was a most difficult opponent my lord. Their systems it seems where all isolated from each other. With only a few network links that were heavily monitored. Once past those defenses their systems parted easily before my blade. It will take Taylor and me the next day or so to process the data into a usable format."

For the rest of the day the combined battlegroup slowly gathers in system. As they watch the Peerless Misery slowly repair its engine the Normandy is getting closer. The next day dawns and more messages from Reach show that this war though just stating has already reach a ferocity that was only seen during the last months of the Great War.

"Sir, begins Taylor, "The data packet is ready and you may want another cup of coffee before you read this."

"Send it to my private wardroom Taylor along with Rha."

As the two senior officers begin reading the data file known as the Codex it reveals that the race that controls that ship are called the Batarians. Based on star descriptions, pulsar location data and other navigational notes Taylor determines that they reside on the other side of the galaxy. Their technology is vastly different relying on something called element zero and the mass effect field. Also their version of FTL is vastly inefficient compared to slipspace and they use constructs called mass relays. Noting that the ship came from the Shanxi System Tornabene has the prowler Darkside of the Moon investigate the system.

Reading more about the batarians the angrier the two warriors are becoming. "Slaves!" exclaims Tornabene, "They take slaves. What kind of advanced race requires slave labor? Contact them! Orders be dammed! I have half a mind to shoot them out of the sky and right now and the other half agrees!"

"That is not all that makes them disgraceful," adds Rha, "Instead of fighting your foe like a true warrior these filth use terrorists and other surrogates to fight their foes for them. They think they are the chosen of the galaxy? We must show them their folly."

As they read the rest of the codex, other entries are flagged as altered and untrustworthy by the ships AI. One of the more interesting ones is about biotics. Biotics are certain people that can use element zero to manipulate the gravity and mass of a target. Another entry talks about the Citadel, the Council, and the galactic government made up of various species. The last thing of note is that humanity is present. This revelation stuns Tornabene. He slumps into his chair amazed. Rha is also confused her mandibles open and close several times.

The next day is spent gathering more intelligence about this batarian corvette or frigate in their terms. The idea of another group of humanity is slowly spreading throughout the fleet. UNSC HighCom and the leaders of the Sword are each sending a heavy battlegroup to secure the cluster. The third day has entered into a familiar routine that was broken by first the report of the Darkside of the Moon. It reads, _we have found the energy signature that Mendicant Bias has given us. The report displays a large tuning fork object about fifteen kilometers in length with a spinning gyroscope of blue white energy in the middle. Attempted data mining by our AI proved to be inconclusive. The relay as confirmed from the codex has its systems hard isolated. The only accessible was the activation feature. Basic dating techniques have put the relay at over fifty thousand years old but before one hundred thousand. So it is old but not as old as the Forerunners. Also it is not made from any known material. Report Ends. _This is just great thinks Tornabene my holy wild goose chase just turned into a holy mystery.

The Normandy enters the system and charges the batarian frigate. It has confirmed the presence of humanity in another part of the galaxy. "Taylor launch one of the Reaper drones to place a tracking bug on both ships. I want to follow the survivor."

Both Garrus and Shepard have experience fighting batarians so when the Normandy's main gun lashes out only vitals are hit. The shield generator, power relays, and engines are destroyed one by one. Each hit sends a wave of fire coursing through the slaver ship. With the enemy immobilized and helpless the Normandy closes on its prey. Firing a concentrated salvo of guardian lasers two holes are burned through the hull; one in the bow near the bridge and the other in the hangar bay.

Kaidan, Ashley, and Liara fire tether lines into the opposite hangar. Securing their ropes they push off and glide through the void into the enemy ship. Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex move to the main hatch of the Normandy. Garrus laying down a barrage of sniper fire suppresses any foolish batarian peeking their head out with a quick perforation to the skull. Wrex uses his biotics to charge across the gap while Shepard takes a running leap. Once they secure the immediate area Garrus jumps as well.

Now that both teams are inside the ship the Normandy extends docking collars to seal off the breaches. The two teams lance through the ship like wild fire. All that stand before them are killed. The batarians try in vain to safeguard their ship and lives. After clearing the bottom decks Kaidan and the rest of team two find the slave pens and recover Tali. "This is easier than Torfan," remarks Shepard as he and Wrex carve their way across the CIC. Their bioticily charged barriers stopping what little gunfire the batarians send their way.

"Yeah," snarls Wrex, "These idiots aren't even putting up a good fight."

With the rest of the upper decks secured there is only one place left to clear, the captain's quarters. Stacking up with Garrus and Wrex on each side Shepard places a small charge on the door. It sputters and turns the lock into liquid. Wrex rips the metal iris apart as Garrus throws in a flashbang. Shepard counting to three rolls in just as the grenade finished exploding. Grabbing the dazed batarian he throws Dal'serah to the deck pinning him in place with his boot. "I demand a proper trial for violating Citadel law. I am not subject to arbitrary Alliance jurisdiction." Shouts the struggling Dal'serah. His two slaves are chained up to the adjoining wall and are too tired from the abuse to do much more than whimper and groan.

"Not this time batarian. I am a Specter. You are guilty of slavery, torture, sexual abuse, rape, attempted murder, kidnapping, and activating a dormant relay. You are sentenced to death by summary execution." Placing the muzzle of his shotgun in the middle of Dal'serah head, his four eyes swivel to look at the gun, Shepard pulls the trigger ending his miserable life is a spray of red gory. "Garrus help me get these two women down. Wrex you have security. Kaidan are we all clear?"

"Yes Commander. Tali is safe and unarmed. We are heading back to the Normandy now."

"All right good work Kaidan. Let's go team. Once we are clear we will blow this ship to oblivion."

While the Normandy was involved in its boarding action the UNSC personnel were just sitting idly by. "Musashi I want you to hack that ship. Don't worry about being totally covert. Once inside initiate a rapid data mine. I want this done before they leave." The AI bows and vanishes. With that done all anyone can do is wait to see who wins.

On the Shadow of Intent Fleetmaster Indo Vadam is going over the data from the batarian dog and his mandibles twist into a smile, a predator's smile. He has found the perfect target to teach these fools what happens when challenge the true masters of the galaxy and have the gall to enslave reclaimers and those who are weaker and innocent.

Minutes later the Normandy releases its docking collars and tethers. Pulling back to a safe distance the main gun fires one more time. It plows through the thin armor like plasma torpedo through a UNSC frigate. Hitting the mass effect core, the ship is vaporized in the subsequent explosion. The Normandy then heads to the system edge and enters FTL. Two hours later it arrives in the Shanxi system and heads back to the relay.

Once it left Tornabene waited and then had the fleet jump to the Shanxi system. As they go over the improved version of the Codex he knows he will have to deal with two major problems, the Citadel Council and the existence of another earth with a group of humans that are nearly identical to the UNSC. Regarding the Batarians, the message from the Shadow of Intent hints that Indo might have a temporary solution. That is why he thinks wryly they pay me the big bucks.


End file.
